It's the great pumpkin Dawn Berlitz
by Final Masquerade
Summary: When Ash saves Dawn from a shape-shifter one night, she can't stop thinking about him and follows him into a dangerous world she never knew exsisted. For Cavaliershark's Pearlshipping contest
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon**

**A/N: Okay, this is my first story, so hope you guys like it and constructive criticism is welcome.**

The cold November wind made Dawn shiver as she walked back to the pokemon centre from a friend's house party. Her friend had offered to let her spend the night, but the centre wasn't that far away and Dawn wanted to be up early the next morning to practice a new combination that she had been working with Piplup and Togekiss on. She had left the party early for the same reason.

Although it wasn't very late, Dawn noticed that the streets were oddly deserted. She'd expected to see at least a few people around her age still out, but realised that she hadn't seen anyone since leaving the party.

A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with the cold and she increased her pace as she entered the park that was a shortcut to the Pokemon centre. The fact that the lamps weren't turned on only added to the ominous atmosphere and Dawn was now decidedly jumpy as she followed the path.

She'd gotten about half way across the park, when the leaves of a tree in front of her rustled and something burst out if it. Dawn screamed and leapt back, shaking, before realizing the shape for what it was.

"Just a Noctowl", she said out loud. "Get a grip on yourself Dawn".

She turned back to the path in front of her and froze. A silhouette of a man blocked the way. It was too dark to see properly but he appeared to be staring at her.

"Can I help you?" she asked nervously, instinctively reaching for a pokeball, only to remember that she had left all of her pokemon at the centre.

Without replying, the man began to move towards her and Dawn took a step back in return. She kept backing away as he approached , until her legs hit a bench and she tumbled backwards onto it. Dawn began to scramble away instead, when the moon came out from behind a cloud and lit up the area enough for her to see the face of the figure in front of her.

"Kenny?" she asked, shocked.

"Hey Dee-Dee" Kenny grinned.

Suddenly angry, Dawn leapt up, crossed the remaining distance between them and slapped him hard across the face.

"What the hell Kenny?" she yelled at him. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Kenny rubbed his cheek where Dawn had struck him. "You're going to regret doing that", he said, his voice suddenly low and dangerous.

"What?" Dawn asked.

From the waistband of his jeans, Kenny removed a hunting knife, its razor sharp edge glinting evily in the moonlight.

Dawn didn't hang around to ask him what was going on, she just jumped up and quickly learnt that you can't run fast in high heels and ditched them without a second thought. Sobs tore from her throat as she ran for her life, Kenny not far behind

She just didn't understand why he was doing this, he had always been so sweet to her in the past. Okay, so maybe Dawn had turned him down every time he had asked her out, but that didn't drive someone to murder. Did it?

Tears were blurring her vision and so Dawn didn't the person in front of her until it was too late. She crashed into them hard, almost knocking the both of them over. Hands reached out to steady her and,looking up, Dawn could vaguely make out the face of a boy.

Seeing Kenny approach, the boy gently pushed Dawn protectively behind him and took something out of his jacket. Dawn was stunned to see that it was a gun, something almost impossible to obtain in the Pokemon world.

She stood, stunned, unable to move or speak as the boy before her removed the safety, raised the gun, took aim and pulled the trigger in one smooth, flowing movement.

Dawn had been expecting the deafening bang that guns tended to make in the movies, but then she noticed that something had been fitted to the barrel of the gun, a silencer. Kenny's body jerked as the bullet found its mark and then crumpled to the ground, silently and undramatically.

The boy who had killed Kenny returned the gun to his jacket, making sure to turn the safety back on first, and pulled two pokeballs from his belt.

"Charizard, Squirtle, you guys know what to do", he told the Pokemon who materialised from them.

Both Pokemon nodded before turning to Kenny's body. The Charizard unleashed a powerful Flamethrower, enveloping the body in white hot flames while the Squirtle stood by, ready to put out the flames once they had done they're job. The boy watched them work, petting the Pikachu that had just hopped up onto his shoulder.

Dawn had been in shock, but the smell wafting off the body soon snapped her out of it. She sprang at the boy, drew back her arm and smacked him. The boy merely took a step back, rubbing his cheek, he seemed unperterbed, as if he had been expecting it. The Charizard and Squirtle looked back at the humans quizically, whilst the Pikachu sparked threateningly. Dawn tried to hit the boy again, but he grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Calm down okay", he told both her and his Pikachu.

"Calm down?" Dawn shrieked. "You just killed Kenny, you bastard!"

The boy sighed. "Okay, look...", he paused and it took Dawn a moment to realise that he was waiting for her name.

"Dawn", she supplied.

"Look Dawn, this is going to sound really weird, but it didn't kill you're friend".

Dawn stared at him incredulously, did he really think that she was that stupid? "Yes you did! I watched you do it", she accused.

"Okay, to save time, let's just say that there are things that you don't know about. That you don't want to know about. But I can promise that tomorrow you can see Kenny alive and well okay? Now, let me walk you into town, where are you staying?", he asked.

"The Pokemon centre", Dawn told him, not sure why she did.

The boy waited until his Squirtle was done putting out Charizard's fire, returned both Pokemon and turned to Dawn. "Right, let's go".

Dawn nodded and the two of them set off. She had no idea why she was willing to allow this boy to accompany her across the deserted park, she had just watched him calmly kill Kenny after all. But then, Kenny had been trying to kill her. For some reason, she just felt safe with this strange boy.

Neither of them spoke again until they reached the Pokemon centre.

"Here we go", the boy said. "Do me a favour and stay in tonight okay Dawn?".

"Okay", Dawn agreed, looking up at him. It was the first time that she had seen the boy's face properly and she couldn't say that she was disappointed.

Kind, brown eyes, tanned skin and messy black hair that stuck out from underneath a red cap. A black and yellow jacket, blue jeans and black fingerless gloves completed the picture. The Pikachu on his shoulder regarded her with bright, intelligent eyes and Dawn had the strongest desire to pet it.

"Well, goodnight Dawn", the boy said after a minute, turning and walking away.

"Night", Dawn replied quietly, almost to herself.

She waited until the boy and his Pikachu had vanished into the shadows of the city, before going into the Pokemon centre and her room.

But although she changed out of her street clothes and got into bed, thoughts of her rather cute rescuer kept her from sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed so far. This chapter took a little longer than expected to write but I think that it turned out okay. Let me know what you think.**

Chapter 2

Once they had safely left Dawn at the Pokemon centre, Ash and Pikachu descended into the city's sewers. Surprisingly, sewers were never hard to get into; the hardest part was making sure that no one saw them either going in or coming out again. Ash really didn't want a repeat of the time an officer Jenny had caught him climbing out of a man hole in the middle of the night.

Ash wrinkled his nose at the disgusting stench of the city's waste that hit him and Pikachu as soon as they reached the bottom of the ladder. He hated this part of the job. Why did Shifters almost always have to keep their victims in places like this? Couldn't it be a nice, clean, stink free hotel room for once? Pikachu had taken up position on top of Ash's head, as far away from the sewer muck as he could get.

As he searched for Kenny, Ash's thoughts drifted to Dawn. She had handled the whole Shifter incident surprisingly well. Most girls tended to freak out when confronted with a similar situation; shrieking and running or clutching onto him. Some got downright hysterical and refused to calm down until Pikachu gave them a weak Thunderbolt.

But Dawn had done none of these things. Okay, so she had slapped him, but that was to be expected and Ash thought that that showed guts; she had just watched him supposedly kill her friend after all. He liked that she obviously had courage, it was so much better than girls who couldn't handle themselves.

_'Plus', _Ash thought to himself, _'she's not bad looking either'. _He was abruptly brought back to earth when his foot slipped on something.

'Oh gross!' he groaned, shining his torch on what he had stepped on and recognising it for the shed skin of the Shifter. 'Shifters are disgusting', he moaned to Pikachu.

'Pika pika chu pi', Pikachu replied.

'Yeah I know that I should have been watching where I'm walking', Ash sighed. 'Kenny, you down here?' he called.

There was no reply, so they kept walking. Ash was starting to think that the Shifter had left Kenny somewhere else and leave the sewers, when Pikachu moved from Ash's head to his shoulder, his ears twitching.

'You hear something buddy?' Ash asked his Pokemon.

'Pi', the mouse nodded and pointed down a smaller tunnel on their left.

Trusting his Pokemon's superior sense of hearing, Ash took the tunnel without hesitstion. The belief that they were going the right way was confirmed when they came across more shed skin, evidently this Shifter had changed its appearance multiple times recently.

The tunnel ended and Ash could make out the form of someone tied to the ladder that led back up to street level. Ash crouched down in front of the sleeping boy.

'Kenny, wake up', he said, gently shaking his shoulder.

Kenny's eyes fluttered open, but it took him a moment to focus on Ash and Pikachu.

'Who are you?', he asked groggily. 'And actually, where am I?'

'You're in the sewers', Ash told him. 'And I'm Ash and this is Pikachu, we've come to help you'.

'The sewers?' Kenny muttered. Something seemed to click and he snapped fully awake. 'Oh Arceus, now I remember! There was this guy who attacked me and knocked me out and when I woke up I was down here. I saw the guy shed his skin', he paused, looking as though he was fighting the urge to throw up. 'And when he was done, he looked exactly like me. What the hell is going on?' he finished, wide eyed.

'Kenny', Ash began, untying the ropes that bound the other boy. 'This is going to sound really weird and hard to believe, but the thing that looked like you was called a Shifter. It's a supernatural creature'.

'A Shifter, you mean a Shape-shifter?' Kenny asked.

Ash nodded and climbed the ladder. Cautiously, he raised the man hole cover a few inches and looked around. He couldn't see anyone near by, so he quietly pushed the cover aside and climbed out, offering a hand up to Kenny, before replacing the cover and walking back to the center of town.

It was only then that he spoke again. 'You were lucky that it was a Shifter that took you really', he commented.

'Really?' Kenny replied sarcastically.

'Yes', Ash replied in a steady voice. 'Shifters keep their victims alive so that they can... download information on you whenever they need it. Any thoughts, feelings, experiences you've had, they have direct access to as long as you're alive. It makes them more effective hunters, since they like to go after people their victim cares about. Most other monsters would have simply killed and eaten you. Or just eaten you', he finished ominously.

Kenny gawped at him. 'Are you insane?' he asked incredulously.

Ash gave a short, humourless laugh. 'I wish that I was', he replied. They reached the Pokemon centre after a short walk and Ash turned to Kenny once more. 'I know that this is going to be hard but try to put all of this behind you and forget about it okay. Oh and you might want to see Dawn tomorrow, she's pretty worried about you'.

'Dawn's involved in this, is she okay?' Kenny asked anxiously.

'Yeah, but she's fine. Don't worry'.

'Okay. Thank you for saving me'.

Ash was slightly taken aback that Kenny had actually bothered to thank him, not too many people did. He recovered quickly though.

'You're welcome Kenny', he smiled.

* * *

Ash lay in bed in his room at the Pokemon centre, thinking. Pikachu was curled up on his pillow and had long since fallen asleep, but Ash wasn't quite ready to follow his example. Now that he had nothing to do, he was free to think about Dawn.

It was weird, Ash had never really taken a paticular intetest in girls. It wasn't that he didn't like them, he did, he just never really thought much about them. Something had always seemed more important, whether it was his next gym battle or the next Hunt. Plus of course, the life of a Hunter wasn't exactly suited to romance, there was too big a risk that the poor girl could get killed as revenge by some monster or other.

Still, Dawn did seem pretty unique...

'What you thinking about?'

Ash screamed and fell backwards off the bed when the disembodied head popped up through the pillow next to him. He groaned and rubbed the back of his head, where he had hit it.

'How many times Gary, _don't _do that!' he hissed. 'And you're lucky that Pikachu didn't wake up'.

'Correction Ashy-boy, _you're _lucky that Pikachu didn't wake up, he can't shock me, remember? And also, are you ever not going to freak out when I pop up?' he chuckled, emerging all the way out of the mattress.

'Yeah, yeah', Ash grumbled, climbing back onto the bed. 'Shouldn't you be haunting the women's showers or something?'

'No one's using them at this time of night', Gary pointed out. 'So I thought that I would come and see you instead'.

'Annoy me is more like it'.

'Why so testy Ashy-boy?' Gary teased. 'Could it be that you were thinking of someone, a certain bluenette maybe?' he grinned.

Ash flushed with embarrassment. 'One, don't call me that and two, I was not thinking about Dawn', he denied hottly.

'Then why are you blushing?'

Ash cursed. 'Can it Oak, before I blast you with a round of rock salt', he threatened.

'So toucy', Gary mocked. 'I think that Ash has a crush'.

Ash growled and turned away, pulling the covers over himself but said nothing, only confirming Gary's suspicions. Spurred on by this, the ghost proceeded to spend the next few hours mercilessly teasing his friend. For his part, Ash gritted his teeth and wondered what he had done to deserve being haunted by Gary Oak of all people.

* * *

Dawn was woken the next morning by a loud tapping at her door. Being too proud to answer the door in her pyjamas, she quickly got dressed before opening the door.

'Kenny!' she exclaimed in relief upon seeing who stood on the other side.

'Hey', Kenny greeted, hugging Dawn.

'What happened?' Dawn asked.

'Can I come in? I don't really want to talk out here', he said.

'Of course, come in', Dawn replied, moving away from the door and motioning for him to sit on the bed.

Kenny told her everything that had happened to him and when it came Dawn's turn to tell her part of it, she decided that it would be better to gloss over the actual killing.

'Well, I'm glad that you're okay', Kenny smiled once she was done.'I'd better get going. Catch you at the next contest?'

'Yeah'.

'Okay, see ya', he hugged her once more before leaving.

With Kenny gone, Dawn decided that, although it was still kind of early in the morning, she may as well get some breakfast and then train.

She had been outside on the training ground for about forty minutes, when she noticed the boy from last night and his Pikachu emerge from inside the centre. She had thought a lot about him last night, wondering who he was and how he had seemed so calm and familiar with the night's weird events.

Without thinking, she ran over to him.

'Hey', she greeted.

He turned and smiled at her. 'Hey Dawn, you're up early. How's it going?' he asked in a friendly tone.

'It's going good', she replied. 'I'm training my Piplup and Togekiss.'.

'That's cool, are you a trainer?'

'A coordinator, are you going to train now too?'

'Nah, Pikachu and I need to head for the next town. Good luck with your competitions, I'm sure that you'll do great'.

'Thanks'.

'See you Dawn, be careful okay?'

'I will, bye... actually you never told me your name', Dawn realised.

'Oh sorry, it's Ash', he smiled again.

'Bye Ash, thanks for your help'.

'No problem, bye'.

As she watched him leave, for reasons that she couldn't explain, Dawn felt an irresistible urge to go with him.

_'Don't be stupid, you barely know him'_, she tried to tell herself. But although she fought against the desire, ultimately it won out.

'Ash, wait', she called, running to catch upto him.

He stopped and turned to look at her quizzically. 'What's up Dawn?'

'Could I...', Dawn hesitated. 'Would it be okay if maybe I... came with you?'

Conflicting emotions crossed Ash's face. 'You don't want to come with me', he finally answered. 'It's too dangerous'.

Dawn drooped in disappointment. 'Oh, okay', she said quietly.

Now Ash felt bad. 'Dawn, you don't understand. I'm going after some monster to kill almost all the time and too often I've seen them get revenge, I don't want you to get hurt'.

'But I can take care of myself', she insisted.

Ash stood, undecided, torn between emotions. Part of him really wanted her to come, wanted the chance to get to know her better. But at the same time, he knew that the risks were too great. Dawn looked up at him hopefully, her Piplup and Togekiss waiting just behind her.

'Oh come on Ashy-boy, let her come', Gary said, suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Being used to this, Ash merely flinched at the sudden interruption, whilst Dawn leapt back, almost landing on top of Piplup, who chirped indignantly. Dawn ignored him though, all of her attention now on Gary.

'Are you a ghost?' she asked.

Gary grinned at her. 'Yeah, I am. Pretty creepy huh?'

'More like cool'.

'I like you', he turned back to Ash. 'Let her join us'.

'You know that it's too dangerous', Ash argued.

'We can watch out for her'.

'No'.

'Yes'.

'Did you want something else?'

'Oh yeah, Brock wanted me to tell you that there's a haunting in Chocovine'.

'Okay, let's go'.

'With Dawn', Ash hesitated and Gary pressed his advantage. 'It's the perfect case for Dawn to get to see what a hunt involves', he coaxed.

Ash glanced at Pikachu, who nodded. He exhaled noisily, knowing that he was outnumbered.

'Fine. Dawn, looks like you're about to go on your first hunt.

* * *

**Just a quick note, if anyone wants something to happen or a ppaticular character to end up in the story then PM me, I am happy to take suggestions. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

'Okay Dawn, once we're inside follow my lead', Ash instructed as he knocked on the door of the three bedroom house in Chocovine Town.

'Okay', Dawn replied, fiddling with her skirt a little . Pikachu turned and gave her a reassuring smile and Dawn smiled back at him.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman peered suspiciously out at them.'Can I help you?' she asked.

'Hi I'm Ash Ketchum and this is Dawn Berlitz. Brock sent us to deal with your problem', Ash said, holding his hand out.

'Ah yes, of course', the woman replied, shaking first Ash's and then Dawn's hand. 'Please, come in. My name's Susan by the way'.

They followed the woman into a smallish living room and took their seats on a cream coloured couch. Dawn looked around the room, taking in the TV, sound system and various pictures.

But what really caught her eye were the contest ribbons standing in glass cases and a Grand Festival cup proudly displayed on some shelves on the back wall.

'Are you a Coordinator?' she asked Susan excitedly.

'Oh no, those belong to my son, Anthony', Susan told her, noticing what Dawn was looking at. 'Actually it's realky him that you should be talking to. Excuse me while I go and fetch him'. Susan left the room and they heard her climbing the stairs.

'So, have you won any Festivals?' Ash asked, bringing Dawn's attention back to him.

'Huh? Oh, no I haven't. The one that I'm trying to qualify for now will be my first', she told him.

'Well I'm sure that you'll do great'.

'Thanks'.

'Your welcome'.

The arrival of Susan and Anthony halted further conversation as they sat down opposite Dawn and Ash.

Ash was the first to break the uneasy silence. 'Hey Anthony, I'm Ash and this is Pikachu and that's Dawn. Your mother told us that it's you that the ghost is targeting, could you tell us what's been happening please?'

'You can call me Tony if you like', Tony offered, seemingly already warming up to Ash. 'Well, when things first started happening, they were barely noticable. Like things bring moved slightly or scrapping noises in my room at night. But recently it started to get really bad. I started seeing a figure standing in the corner of my room or sometimes right by my bed and I thought that I heard voices once or twice. Then a week ago, I woke up to a feeling like someone was sitting on my chest. When I tried calling for help, hands wrapped around my throat, strangling me', he broke off, shaking at the memory.

'There were bruises on his neck too, in the shape of handprints', Susan added. Ash merely nodded for Tony to continue his story, but he seemed reluctant to, so Susan took over.

'We decided to call Brock after the other night. I woke up to Tony screaming in the small hours in the morning, so of course I rushed to him. I couldn't believe it when I saw the cuts appearing by themselves'. She turned to Tony, 'show them'.

Tony stood and lifted his t-shirt. Dawn gasped and even Ash looked a little shocked. The whole of Tony's torso was covered in cuts and scratches, some of which looked pretty deep. When he turned, they saw that his back was in a similar state.

Ash swallowed nervously. They weren't dealing with a regular ghost here.

* * *

'Dawn I want you to stay here'.

'What, why? You said that I could come'.

'That was when I thought that we would be dealing with an ordinary haunting. Not even Pikachu's coming on this one'.

'Chu', Pikachu said in a half upset, half indignant tone.

'Don't take that tone with me Pikachu, I'm not risking you on this Hunt and that's that', Ash told him.

'Okay I get why you don't want Pikachu to go, but I can handle it', Dawn insisted.

They were currently in their room at the Pokemon centre. After Ash had asked Susan and Tony a few more questions, Ash, Dawn and Pikachu had headed back to the centre to prepare. It was here that Ash told Dawn that she wouldn't be going back to the house tonight and she was not happy with the change of plan.

'You have no idea what we're up against here Dawn. I do. Trust me when I say that this is no case for someone's first Hunt', Ash said firmly.

'But'.

'NO!' Ash shouted, feeling instantly bad about it when Dawn bit her bottom lip and looked away. The room descended into an awkward silence.

'I'm back',Gary announced loudly, floating through a wall. 'Wow this atmosphere isn't tense at all', he commented sarcastically, 'what happened whilst I was gone?'

'Did you find out anything useful?' Ash asked, ignoring Gary's question.

'Yes I did', Gary replied, deciding to let the subject drop for now. 'That is one pissed off spirit haunting that house, she tried to kill me! Which coming to think of it must mean that she can't be all that smart either, since I'm already dead. You think that she would recognise another ghost when she saw him. Anyway, apparently her boyfriend, who had always been so sweet and kind and charming by the way'. He said this last part in a high-pitched voice, clasping his hands together and batting his eyelashes at Ash. Ash and Dawn snorted with laughter.

'Get on with it Oak', Ash smiled.

Gary grinned, having successfully defused the tension between Ash and Dawn and continued speaking. 'Yeah so, one night Prince-not-so-charming gets drunk and decides that Grace, that's the girl's name, has been cheating on him. So he decides to use the poor thing as a punch bag until he kills her before dumping her body in an alleyway to get away with it'.

'That's sad and all but why is she attacking Tony?' Dawn asked.

'Probably because Prince Charming happened to have been Tony's uncle. The guy killed himself by wrapping his car around a tree not too long ago, drunk driving most likely. So Grace has decided that attacking Tony is the closest that she'll get to revenge on her killer'.

'That doesn't seem fair', Dawn frowned.

'If a ghost is angry enough for long enough then it stops mattering to them if the person that they're attacking is responsible for their death or not. They just want somebody to lash out at', Ash explained. 'Gary, do you know if she was buried or cremated?'

'Cremated'.

'Any remains or something similar in the house?'

'Actually yes, there's supposed to be a locket with a lock of Grace's hair in it. I think that it's in Susan's jewellry box'.

'Okay thanks Gary'.

'No problem Ashy-boy'.

Ash groaned, 'don't call me that'.

'So, what were you two love birds fighting about when I came in?' Gary asked, catching Ash off guard with the sudden change of topic.

Both he and Dawn blushed at Gary's turn of phrase.

'I was just telling Dawn that I think that its too dangerous for her to come tonight', Ash replied, staring fixedly at his shoes.

'And I was telling Ash that it would be fine', Dawn said, giving Gary a pleading look. She thought that as he had helped to change Ash's mind the last time, maybe she could persuade him to help again.

Gary was beginning to look uncomfortable with the look that Dawn was giving him. 'I'm sorry Dawn but I have to agree with Ash on this one', he said.

'But I thought that you guys liked me, I thought that you thought that I can handle this Hunting thing. But you don't, do you? You think that I'm just another helpless little girl that needs protecting'. As she said this, Dawn turned to what was perhaps the most powerful weapon in a girl's aresnal; fake tears.

Dawn had learnt long ago that everyone, boys in paticular hated it when a girl cried and usually caved in and did whatever the girl wanted. Ash and Gary were no different, both were now looking decidedly uncomfortable and Pikachu even crawled into her lap to give her a hug in an effort to cheer her up.

Ash crossed the room and sat next to her on the bed, putting an arm around her shoulders. 'Dawn of course I don't think that, I wouldn't have let you come with me if that was the case. I just don't want you to come because I'm afraid that this paticular ghost might seriously hurt you if I can't get to you in time', he admitted.

'I trust you to protect me'.

'But I can't guarantee that I can and I can't take that chance with you'.

Dawn didn't miss the slight emphasis he put on "you" and her heart skipped a beat. Could it really be possible that he liked her?

'Please Ash', she said in barely above a whisper, laying her head on his shoulder. 'I don't want to have to sit here tonight, I want to come to make sure that you're alright too'.

Ash blushed lightly as the implication of Dawn's words hit him. Gary noticed and smiled to himself; so Ash actually did like Dawn. Knowing Ash, Gary knew that his friend would probably either never act on his feelings or take forever to. He would just have to help things along a little.

'Okay', Ash sighed after a couple of minutes. 'You can come".

* * *

'Stay close to me', Ash instructed as he and Dawn approached the house.

Upon Ash's suggestion, Susan and Tony had gone out for the evening to ensure their safety and so that they didn't get in the way.

Once inside, Ash and Dawn made their way to the stairs, keeping an eye out for signs that the ghost was coming. Ash carried a shotgun loaded with rock salt rounds, whilst Dawn held an iron rod. Finding out that she had had no experience with firearms, Ash had decided against giving her one for this Hunt, promising to teach her how to shoot at a later date. Both rock salt and iron would temporarily dispel a ghost if it wss hit by them.

Ash was beginning to find the lack of paranormal activity suspicious. Grace must know that he and Dawn were here and what they had come to do, yet so far he'd picked up no signs that she was about to make an appearance. A heavy silence pressed down on them as they climbed the stairs, as if the whole house was holding its breath.

'You okay Dawn?' Ash asked quietly.

'Yeah', Dawn replied. 'This isn't so bad, nothing's even happened yet'.

'I know, that's what's worrying me'.

'Huh?'

'Well she has to know that we're here to get rid of her, so by now she should be attacking us with a vengeance',

'Maybe she's waiting for something'.

'That's what I was thinking. Stay close, she could pop up at any time'.

They reached the landing and looked warily around. Still nothing. Cautiously they entered Susan's bedroom.

'Okay, look -', Ash started to say but was interrupted by the door slamming shut behind them.

Dawn darted over and tried the handle. 'It won't open'.

Ash nodded. 'I didn't expect it to. Come over here and be ready with that rod', he ordered calmly.

Dawn obeyed without question, standing back to back with Ash in the center of the room, iron rod held at the ready.

'Why don't we turn on the lights? Then we could see better', she suggested.

'It's a lot harder to see a ghost in strong light and I don't want to give her another advantage', Ash answered.

'Oh'.

'Right, I'm going to look for this locket so that we can get out of here. Watch my back', Ash said, moving towards the dressing table. He hadn't gone more than a couple of paces when the temperature in the room plummeted. The hair on the back of Dawn's neck rose and she turned to find herself face to face with the ghost.

Grace's long, green hair reached to half way down her back and her grey eyes bored into Dawn's blue ones, a cruel smile played across the dead girl's lips. Dawn's gaze was drawn to Grace's throat, to the ugly red line slashed across it. Blood still dribbled out of it.

The ghost's smile widened and she raised the knife that Dawn only now noticed that she was holding. Dawn gasped and stumbled back, in her shock momentarily forgetting about the iron rod in her own hands. There was a loud bang from behind her and Grace disappeared in a cloud of rock salt.

'Dawn are you okay?' Ash asked worriedly, gripping the tops of her arms. Dawn could only nod in reply but it was enough for Ash, he looked relieved. 'Good'.

Dawn's eyes widened. 'Look out!'

Ash turned just in time to see Grace standing behind him and barely managed to avoid the knife that had been aimed at his lower back. He didn't have time to bring his gun up before the next attack but Dawn was fast. Leaping forward, she swung the rod and it passes through the ghost's body, making her disappear again,

Ash flashed Dawn a smile. 'Thanks'.

'No problem'.

'She reforms fast, she must be more powerful than I thought. Here's what we'll do; you look for the locket and I'll keep her away from you okay?'

Dawn nodded in agreement and they headed back to the dressing table.

'Hey Dawn, could you give me your rod please? It might be better than my gun at the moment', Ash said.

Dawn passed him the rod and then reached for the jewellry box. Grace appeared and slashed at Ash with her knife but he blocked it with the rod and hit her with it yet again.

A heavy looking lamp lifted into the air. 'Uh Dawn', Ash said slightly nervously. 'Look faster'.

The lamp flew at him and although Ash managed to dodge it, he wasn't prepared for it to come again from behind and it slammed into his back, knocking him onto the floor. He lost his grip on the rod and it rolled out of reach.

'Ash?' Dawn called worriedly.

'I'm fine, just keep looking'.

Grace appeared above him, murder in her eyes as she raised the knife above his chest. He rolled to avoid the attack but the blade still got him in the top of his left arm. His fingers found the rod and he swung it, dissapating her as it passed through her abdomen. Ash stood up and placed a hand over the wound to staunch the bleeding.

'How's it going Dawn?'

'Give me a minute, I've almost... wait, got it!'

'Brilliant, now - ', he paused to counter another attack. 'Now open it and take the hair out'.

Dawn fumbled at the catch on the locket. Having not been opened in who knew how long, the catch was stiff and difficult to undo.

'Duck!' Dawn instantly reacted to Ash's warning and felt a rush of air as the rod swept over her head and hit Grace, who had been intent on stabbing her in the neck.

Knowing that she didn't have much time left, Grace increased the frequency and, if it was possible, aggression of her attacks and Ash was having a hard time keeping her away from himself and Dawn. Although he was by now beginning to tire, he was still determined that Dawn wouldn't get hurt and so began shielding her from any hurled objects aimed at her with his own body.

'Got it', Dawn said finally.

'Great. Take this and burn it', Ash passed her a lighter, wincing as a paperweight struck his shin.

Dawn grabbed the lighter from him and, after a few tries managed to maintain a flame. She held the flame to the lock of hair. The effect it had was immediate; Grace stopped her latest attack and made a horrible gurgling sound that was probably as close to a scream that her slit throat would allow. Then her form was enveloped in flames and with one more terrible gurgling sound, she was gone.

'Is that it?' Dawn asked.

'Yes that's it. She's gone', Ash said quietly.

Dawn turned to look at him and her stomach lurched; Blood ran down Ash's arm from under his hand and was dripping from his fingers to form a small puddle on the floor. Even in the poor light, Dawn could see that he looked a little pale.

'Oh shit, you're hurt', Dawn said worriedly.

'It's not that bad'.

'Yes it is. Come on, let's get you downstairs, there must be a first aid kit somewhere around here'.

Once in the kitchen, Dawn made Ash sit at the table whilst she located the first aid kit. Finding it in the cupboard under the sink, she set it down on the table and opened it.

'Okay, first thing we need to do is stop the bleeding', she said to herself more than Ash.

She found some guaze and held it against the wound, slightly worried when the blood soaked right through it. Forcing herself to remain calm, she got another piece and then another, until the blood flow had almost stopped. Breathing a sigh of relief, she treated the wound with antiseptic and then took a good look at it.

'I think that this is going to need stitches', she decided.

'Can you do it?' Ash asked.

'I can, but I don't have any anathetic'.

'It'll be fine if you just do it'.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes'.

'Okay'. Reluctantly, Dawn opened up a packet of surgical thread. She hesitated before piercing Ash's skin for the first time; surely it would really hurt if she did it withous something numb the area and the last thing she wanted was to hurt him.

'It's fine', Ash said again, sensing her reluctance.

Taking a deep breath, Dawn pushed in the needle and pulled the thread through as gently as possible. To his credit, Ash didn't even flinch and Dawn's confidence grew as she worked.

'Very professional', Ash praised when she was done.

'Thanks', Dawn replied, secretly thrilled at the complement.

'Kinda ironic don't you think? I didn't want you to come in case you got hurt and here you are, taking care of me', he smiled.

'Yes, it is', Dawn chuckled.

'Thanks Dawn, you're pretty awesome', he said warmly.

Their eyes locked and for a short time, neither was able to look away. Dawn's heart sped up and felt as though it was now in her throat and Ash got that nervous excited feeling he'd only ever felt just before a Pokemon battle.

'Uh, you're welcome', Dawn stuttered eventually. Blushing profusely, she turned away to return the first aid kit to its cupboard. Ash had turned just as red and pulled his hat down to cover his eyes; something that Dawn found incredibly cute.

Ash cleared his throat to break the slightly awkward silence that had descended. 'We should get back, Pikachu will be starting to get worried'.

'Right. Should we let Susan and Tony know that the house is safe now?'

'Yeah, I'll call them now'.

Ash made the brief phone call and then he and Dawn left for the Pokemon centre, locking the house with the spare key that Susan had given them and pushing it back through the letter box.

Unexpectedly, Nurse Joy was still up and standing behind the counter when they got back to the centre. She gave them an odd look when they came in but didn't comment. Ash knew that both he and Dawn must have looked pretty battered and worn out and he was grateful for the nurse's discretion.

'You did great back there by the way', he said to Dawn as they walked down the corridor to their room.

'Thanks Ash', Dawn beamed.

'You're welcome. You really surprised me tonight, honestly you were a lot better than I originally thought that you would be', he continued, opening the door and standing back to let Dawn in first.

'Pika pi', Pikachu cried, leaping into Ash's arms as soon as he walked into the room.

'Hey Pikachu, good to see you too buddy', Ash laughed and hugged the little mouse. Dawn smiled to herself; Ash and Pikachu had such a cute relationship.

'Hey guys, how'd it go?' Gary asked, hovering cross-legged above Ash's bed.

'We got rid of her', Ash told him.

'What happened to your arm?'

'I'll tell you tomorrow', Ash replied, lying down on his bed without changing out of his street clothes or removing his shoes. He was tired and wasn't in the mood to recap the whole Hunt tonight.

'Fine, then I'll ask Dawn', Gary persisted.

'No', Ash said without opening his eyes. 'I'm sure that Dawn's tired too and us humans actually have to sleep. Go haunt Nurse Joy or something and we'll fill you in in the morning'.

'Fine', Gary said again and floated off through a wall, grumbling as he went.

Dawn gave him an apologetic smile but was inwardly glad for Ash's intervention; it had been a long, adrenaline fuelled night and now all she too wanted was to sleep. Laying down on her own bed, she was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

* * *

Ash was up and outside training before Dawn had even woken up the next morning and was busy working with Torterra and Pikachu when she got down to the training grounds.

'Torterra, Leaf Storm. Pikachu, dodge it with Quick Attack', he ordered.

Torterra sent a flurry of leaves at Pikachu, who raced around the field so fast that Dawn had a little trouble tracking his movements.

'Great, now switch to Volt Tackle and Torterra, you use Rock Climb'.

Pikachu sprang towards Torterra, his body becoming surrounded by a bright light. Torterra cried its name and a spire of rock appeared out of the ground before it, which it climbed. Undettered, Pikachu leapt into the air and slammed into Torterra, the force of the attack knocking the huge Pokemon back slightly.

'Use Crunch', Ash said.

Reacting quickly, Torterra reached down and grabbed Pikachu's tail in its mouth. Pikachu cried out in surprise and struggled, although he wasn't really hurt; this was only a training battle, so Torterra was hardly doing more than holding Pikachu by the tail.

'Okay good job guys, that's enough for today', Ash said, deciding that there there was a good place to finish.

Torterra released Pikachu and the two Pokemon approached their trainer, who petted them and returned Torterra to it's ball. He jumped when he turned and saw Dawn standing behind him.

'Oh hey Dawn, I didn't notice you arriving', he laughed.

'I've been here for a while, I guess that you were really caught up in your training', Dawn smiled.

'Yeah, I normally do am. We've got a gym battle coming up, so I needed to get some practice in'.

'You're entering a Leauge?'

'The Sinnoh one', Ash confirmed. 'I figure that just because I'm a Hunter now, doesn't mean that I have to give up on my dream of becoming a Pokemon master, right?'

'Right', Dawn agreed. 'And that means that I can keep working to become a top Coodinator. If you don't mind coming to competitions with me that is'.

'Of course I don't mind', Ash smiled. His phone rang and, after checking who was calling, answered it. 'Hey Brock, what's up?'

Dawn watched as the smile on Ash's face faded to be replaced with a serious, slightly worried expression. Whatever Brock was telling him couldn't have been good.

'Alright, we'll be there as soon as we can', he said, ending the call. He looked down at Dawn. 'Brock said that he's heard something that could be very bad', he told her. 'Pack up, we're heading to Pewter City.

* * *

Dawn didn't know what she had been expecting Brock's house to look like, but she certainly hadn't expected it to have a Pokemon doctor's clinic attatched to it.

She and Ash arrived in Pewter City a day and a half after Brock's phone call. They had hopped on a last minute flight to Viridian City that Brock had been kind enough to pay for and from there, it was a little more than half a day's walk to Pewter, even when one of Ash's "short cuts" had ebded up getting them lost instead.

Ash knocked on the door and it was opened by a brown haired, blue eyed girl wearing a red bandanna. Dawn was sure that she recognised her, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

'May, what are you doing here?' Ash asked happily, hugging her. Dawn felt a small pang of jealousy at the affection in his voice.

May grinned. 'Hi Ash, it's great to see you too, hi Pikachu', she scratched him behind the ear and Pikachu squeaked happily. 'I'm here because I'm the one bringing the bad news I'm afraid', she explained, moving out of the way so that Ash and Dawn could come in.

The inside of Brock's house was neat and tidy but somehow also homely. It wasn't very big either; three doors were set in the pale lemon walls, one leading to the living room, one the kitchen and the one opposite the front door led to the clinic. Light wooden stairs opposite the living room led to the upstairs of the house and the delicious smell of cooking hung in the air.

Ash, May and Dawn went into the living room, which had a white leather couch and seats and a hardwood floor. A small coffee table stood near the couch with a few Pokemon magazines lying on it and a medium sized TV hung on the wall opposite. On another wall, Dawn noticed a framed picture showing Ash, Pikachu, who Dawn presumed to be Brock and a red haired girl smiling at the camera. Next to it was a picture of Ash, Pikachu, May, Brock and a younger boy with blue-black hair and glasses.

'Hey Brock', Ash called, plopping down onto the couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table. Pikachu hopped onto the seat next to him.

'Hey Ash, I'll be there in a minute', Brock called from the kitchen.

May sat down on the couch. 'Hey Dawn, why don't you come and sit down?' she offered, moving Pikachu onto her lap to make room for Dawn.

'Okay', Dawn replied somewhat nervously.

'So Ash tells me that you're a Coodinator too', May continued once Dawn had taken her seat between May and Ash.

Dawn nodded. 'Yes, I'm hoping to enter my first Grand Festival soon'.

'I bet that you'll do great', May smiled.

'Better than May did I'll bet', Ash teased.

May smacked him playfully around the head. 'Like you can comment, mister my Charizard decided to take a nap in the middle of my first Leauge'.

'Oh yeah', Ash said, looking pensive for a moment. 'Ah doesn't matter, he listens to me now'.

'And Arceus knows why. I could probably do a better job with him'.

Ash snorted. 'Charizard in a Contest?' I don't think so, he'd probably get bored and fry the judges, then torch the audience for good measure'.

'That's because he has no finesse or elegance, much like his trainer actually'.

'Hey, I can be elegant', Ash argued and then both of them burst into laughter. Dawn smiled at their friendly banter, reassured now that friendship was all there was between Ash and May.

'So how is everyone?' Ash asked.

'They're all good thanks. Max can't wait to get his first Pokemon later this year'.

'I'll bet. Max is May's little brother', Ash informed Dawn. He turned back to May, 'still going out with Drew?'

'Yeah, it's going really good, although I'm still keeping him in the dark about the whole Hunting thing'.

'That's probably for the best'.

'That's what I think'.

Dawn was adding things up in her head. She knew that she'd seen May before, she also knew that she was a Coordinator and that she was dating someone called Drew... Suddenly, it clicked and Dawn's eyes widened.

'You're the Princess of Hoenn!' she blurted out.

May and Ash laughed. 'That's right, but it's really not that big of a deal', May smiled.

'I can't believe it, I love you', Dawn gushed. 'You're an amazing Coodinator'.

May flushed at the high praise. 'Thanks, but there are better Coodinators than me', she said modestly.

Just then a tall, brown, spiky haired young man entered the room. He frowned when he looked down at Ash.

'Ash, get your feet off my table', he said, swatting Ash's legs.

'Sorry Brock', Ash grinned sheepishly.

'Hmm', Brock grunted, although it was obvious that he wasn't really mad. 'Lunch is ready if you want it'.

'Food!' Ash and May shouted at the same time, leaping up and tearing out of the room, Pikachu hot on their heels. Dawn sweat dropped.

'Yeah, they do that', Brock said. 'Good to meet you Dawn, Ash has told me a lot about you. Are you hungry?'

'Yes'.

'Then let's go before all of the food gets eaten'.

Dawn followed Brock into the kitchen where Ash and May were shovelling food down as if they'd never seen it before. Pikachu sat on the floor with a bowl of Pokemon food. Dawm sweat dropped again.

'What? We were hungry', Ash defended, catching Brock and Dawn staring at them.

'Clearly', Brock said raising an eyebrow, his expression amused.

He pulled out a chair for Dawn and placed a plate of food in front of her. From the first bite, she was hooked; Brock's cooking was probably the best that she'd ever tasted.

The kitchen descended mostly into silence as lunch was eaten and when everyone was done, they went back into the living room.

'So what's so important that we had to get here so fast?' Ash asked as he sat back down on the couch.

'Well', May began. She had remained standing, along with Brock. 'My last Hunt was a demon possession, routine stuff, you know; finding it, trapping it. But when I was exorcising it, it told me that the demons are planning something big. Something bad for us'.

'How bad are we talking?' Ash asked.

May looked grim. 'If they pull this off, we could be looking at the end of the human race'.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Things have been really busy at work lately and I had a bit of a writet's block. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

Chapter 4

A stunned silence gripped the room. Ash, Dawn and Pikachu were speechless, whilst May and Brock, whom had already heard May's story, stood grimly before them.

'What exactly are they planning on doing?' Ash finally managed to ask.

It was Brock who answered. 'I've been doing some research based on the information that May has given me and it sounds as if they plan on releasing Togoros'.

'Who?'

'Togoros, ancient, evil being. From what I've managed to dig up, he really doesn't sound like someone that we want to meet. Apparently, about seven hundred years ago there was a witch who was completely obsessed with power and he would do anything to get it and wouldn't think twice about killing anyone who got in his way. Or eventually he would just kill for fun', Brock frowned.

'A group of hunters finally managed to track him down and kill him. Only that wasn't the end of it. Somehow, during his time in hell, Togoros managed to get stronger and stronger until he was strong enough to break out, which he did about one hundred and fifty years ago. It was bad, no, disastrous for the world. During his time in hell, Togoros developed a hatred for all humans, a hatred that was only fuelled by the hatred of the demons down there with him. So the first thing that he did when he got out was start a massacre'.

'I bet that he had the time of his life butchering and torturing all of those innocent people', Brock continued in disgust. 'Apparently he liked to make their deaths as slow and painful as possible and even make them watch as he killed their loved ones. He made some of the things we hunt look humane by comparison'.

'Wait Brock', Ash interrupted. 'If he was as powerful as you say, then how did he get a body to contain him?'

'Good question. He has a line of descendants and-'.

'Who would have been desperate enough to do him?', Ash asked in disgust.

'Will you let me finish'.

'Sorry'.

'As I was saying; he has a line of descendants and anyone from that line is able to be possessed by him without their body being destroyed by the amount of power its trying to contain. So, back to the story. After almost a year, with the help of a whole bunch of the legendary Pokemon,Togoros was defeated and sent back to hell again. Although not before he had wiped out over three quaters of human life on the planet.

There was a silence when Brock had finished his story as Ash and Dawn took it in.

'Wow', Ash said finally.

'We can't let them free him', Dawn said.

May nodded. 'We know. That's why I called you here, so that we could try to come up with a plan'.

'Okay, so what do we do now?' Dawn asked.

'Well, I was on in the Orange Islands when I heard it', May replied. 'So I think that our best bet is to go back there and see if we can pick up any leads.'.

'Do you think that you will?' Brock asked. May shrugged.

'Well it's better than doing nothing', Ash decided.

'How do we get there?' Dawn wondered.

'Not in a blimp preferably', Brock said and he and Ash laughed.

'What's so funny?'

'Oh nothing, it's just when Brock and I went there for the first time with Misty, there was this thing with Team Rocket hijaking us on a blimp and trying to steal Pikachu as usual', Ash explained.

'Team who?'

An explosion came from outside.

Dawn jumped. 'What was that?' She cried, noticing that neither Ash, Pikachu, Brock or May looked concerned in the least.

'You'll see in a minute', May replied in a bored tone of voice.

Smoke poured in through the open window and Dawn could hear the sounds of people coming from within it.

'Prepare for trouble...' a female voice announced.

'And make it double...' a male one continued.

'Here we go again', Ash sighed.

'What?' Dawn asked, confused.

'Excuse us, it's rude to ignore people you know', the woman said.

The trainers turned their attention back to the window to find two people and a Meowth now standing in the living room. They all looked put out.

'Why should we care about your stupid motto, it's always exactly the same anyway', May snorted in disdain.

'Yeah and we know what your next lines will be too', Brock added.

'I believe that it's normally something like; hand over that Pikachu twerp', Ash agreed. 'And then Pikachu Thunderbolts you guys and then you all go blasting off again. Sound about right?'

'I'd say that it does', May chuckled.

Dawn was confused. 'Wait, who are these people?'

'That's Team Rocket', Brock informed her.

'They seem weird'.

'You have no idea'.

'Stop ignoring us', Jessie wailed, stamping her foot.

'Oh i'm sorry, where are our manners', Ash smirked, sharing a glance with May.

'Skitty, come on out and use Double Slap', May commanded.

The pink cat like pokemon emerged from it's ball and happily slapped Team Rocket repeatedly with it's tail. The trio yelled and cowered under the attack.

'Okay Squirtle, use Skull Bash', Ash ordered.

Squirtle burst from his ball and drove his head hard into the criminals, sending them flying through the window and up into the air, where they disappeared with a final flash of light.

'That was... interesting', Dawn said after a moment of silence. 'Does that happen a lot?'

'Oh its a regular occurence when yout travelling with Ash', May said cheerfully, returning Skitty.

'Yeah and it's not even your Pikachu that they're after', Ash said, returning Squirtle after thanking him. 'So, how are we getting to the Orange Islands?'

'Boat?' Brock suggested.

'It's as good a way as any', May agreed.

'Alright then, a boat it is', Ash smiled.

'There's a ship going there tomorrow at 10:15', Brock informed them, already checking departure times on his laptop.

'Great, so we can all stay here tonight and go first thing in the morning', Ash smiled, settling back down on the couch.

Brock raised an eyebrow at his younger friend. 'Oh really, and have you asked me if you can stay?'

'You don't really mind do you Brock?' May asked him.

'Nah, I don't mind you and Dawn staying. But Ash, there's a perfectly good Pokemon centre down the road that you can stay in'.

'What!' Ash exclaimed. 'You're going to kick me out!'

'Yes. Maybe I'm tired of you taking advantage of me'.

'Aw come on Brock'.

'Now if you apologised, then I would consider letting you stay too'.

' I'm really sorry for taking advantage of you and you're a great person and you're the world's best doctor. How was that?'

'Very good. So Pikachu can now stay too'.

Ash fell over anime style. 'What!'

Brock laughed. 'Of course you can stay Ash, you know that I enjoy having you around'.

'Thanks Brocko'.

'You're welcome. You'll have to sleep on the couch though, May is in the spare bedroom'.

'That's fine, i've slept in worse places'.

'You can sleep with me if you like Dawn', May offered.

Um, thanks', Dawn replied a little shyly.

'No problem. It'll be fun, I haven't had any one to do girl talk with in ages'.

'Yeah, not since Brock was travelling with you', Ash joked.

Brock turned to Ash. 'So where is it that you're staying tonight again Ash?'

'Aw come on Brock, you know that I'm just messing with ya', he punched Brock playfully on the arm.

and punched him lightly back.

'I know'.

After a few hours of Ash, Brock and May catching up and May and Brock getting to know Dawn, they then prepared to go to bed; the girls and Brock heading upstairs and Ash making up a bed on the couch with the blankets and pillow that Brock had given him before going up. Once he had lain gotten comfortable, Pikachu lay down on his chest, his tail curled around his small body.

Ash smiled almost to himself. 'Goodnight Pikachu', he said softly.

* * *

'May hurry up, we're going to be late', Ash yelled up the stairs the next morning.

'Oh like you're one to talk', May snapped back.

'I'll never understand why girls take so long to get ready to go out', Ash said to Brock and Pikachu.

Brock shrugged. 'Beats me'. Pikachu also shrugged and continued to eat ketchup straight from the bottle.

'Hey when and how did you get that', Brock suddenly noticed. 'Come on Pikachu, give me that bottle'. He tried to grab the ketchup from the mouse but Pikachu sprung away from him.

'Cha', he said excitedly, anticipating a game of keep away with the Pokemon doctor.

Ash was about to help him when he got distracted by May and Dawn coming down the stairs.

'For your information Ash, it takes us girls so long because it takes time to look good', May said. 'Clearly you still don't care about your appearance'.

'Hey I have more important things to worry about', Ash replied nonchalantly.

'Ash, do you mind helping me out here', Brock called, bringing Ash's attention to the fight for the ketchup bottle and the fact that Brock was losing.

'Sure thing Brock', Ash replied, holding in a laugh at Brock's dishevelled appearance and Pikachu's triumphant smile as he held the bottle in his paws. ' Give it here Pikachu'.

The mouse tried to run away but Ash expertly snagged the bottle befote Pikachu had gone more than two steps. He handed it to Brock before picking up Pikachu and scratching him behind an ear.

Pikachu 'cha'd' happily and Dawn smiled, Pikachu was just so cute.

'Alright, let's go', Ash said, Pikachu climbing onto his shoulder.

Dawn glanced around the room. 'Where did I put my bag?'

'Right here', Brock said, handing it to her.

'Thanks'.

'Your welcome'.

'Are you coming with us Brock?' May asked.

'I'm giving you a lift to the docks but that's as far as i'm going for now', he replied.

Everyone grabbed their backpacks and filed outside to the garage that was situated behind Brock's house. His car was a black truck that had obviously seen better days, if the rust holes and various dents and scrapes were anything to go by.

Ash and May had a small arguement about who got the passenger seat until Brock whacked Ash around the head and told both of them to get in the back. Scowling they obeyed, leaving Dawn the front seat.

Just before she got into the truck, Piplup escaped from his ball and looked around excitedly.

'Piplup, get back in your ball', Dawn told him.

Pip pip lup', Piplup argued.

'It's fine if he wants to stay out', Brock spoke up, correctly interpreting Piplup's desire to be allowed to stay out and watch where they were going.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes'.

'Ok, say thank you Piplup'.

'Lup'.

'Your welcome. Ash do me a favour and open the garage door would you please? The motor is broken again'.

'Could have told me that before I got in the car', Ash muttered, but passed Pikachu to May and climbed back out of the car none the less.

'Thanks Ash, you can just leave it open', Brock called out the window once he had driven outside.

Ash jogged over to the waiting car and got back in. Brock waited until Ash had strapped himself in before moving off again.

The Vermillion city docks were rather busy when they arrived and Brock had to park on the street and the four of them had to walk to the ferry. Pikachu rode on Ash's shoulder as usual, whilst Dawn carried Piplup in her arms.

'I think that it's this way', Ash said, strolling off.

'Wrong way Ash', Brock grabbed his arm to keep him from going any further. 'This way'.

He led them to a medium sized boat that sat at the end of the docks. Passengers were boarding or saying goodbye to friends and family, whilst dock workers loaded luggage into the cargo hold.

'Alright, be careful guys and if you need help then call me', Brock told them.

'Sure thing, thanks Brocko'. Suddenly unable to resist being evil, Ash added, 'if we see proffessor Ivy, do you want us to tell her hi from you?', he smirked.

Brock suddenly disappeared and looking around, Dawn spotted him a few metres away crouched on the ground, hugging his knees.

'Don't mention that name', he groaned.

Dawn sweat dropped. 'Uh...'

'Don't worry about him, he'll be fine', Ash told her. 'See ya soon Brock',.he called, he and Pikachu still sniggering as they boarded the boat. By the time May and Dawn joined them, Brock had recovered and was waving them off.

Piplup had jumped up on the railings and almost fell off when the ship began to move. Dawn grabbed hold of him.

'Piplup, be careful', she scolded him gently.

'Aw, he's sort of like Blaziken when he was a Torchic', May cooed, petting the water type on the head. Piplup chirped and leaned into May's caress.

'How long will it take to get to ? island?' Dawn asked Ash.

'Well we'll be docking on Pummelo island in about two hours. But then we have to make our own way to Moro island', he replied.

'So what shall we do in the mean time?'

May and Ash looked at each other. 'Eat', they said at the same time.

* * *

'We're finally here', Dawn announced happily, stretching as they came off the small fisherman's boat.

Ash only noticed that he had been staring when he heard the fisherman's amused grunt behind him. He glanced around and also caught May's knowing smile. Blushing slightly, he pulled his hat lower and walked forward.

'Right, let's get going', he said unnecessarily loudly, ignoring Dawn's quizzical look.

'Ash, do you even know where you're going?' May called after him, still smiling.

'Of course I do'.

'Of course you don't'. Gary popped out of thin air, right in front of Ash.

Ash yelled and jumped back, almost falling in the water. 'Good to see you May, you too Dawn', he added, floating over to the girls.

'Gary, quit looking down my top or I will bring you back to life, rip your stupid, ugly head off and shove it up your ass after using your eyes as ping pong balls', May said in a deadly calm voice.

'Ooh scary', Gary mocked.

May growled softly.

'Still don't know when to shut up do you?' Ash commented.

'Nope'.

'Okay, where are we going May?'

'I found the demon in a little village a few miles east of here, I guess that we could start there', May shrugged.

'Then lead the way'.

* * *

For the next two days, May, Dawn and Ash tried to find out anything that they could about hell's plan but came up with nothing.

'You know, there is one thing that we haven't tried', Ash said cautiously on the second night.

They were sitting around their campfire, just finishing up dinner after a long day of once again getting nowhere. Their pokemon had also been allowed out to eat.

'What's that?' Dawn asked.

'We could summon a demon'.

May's head shot up and even Pikachu stopped eating to look at his trainer.

'Ash i'm not so sure about that', May said warily.

'Well we need to find out what they're planning and we're not getting anywhere at the moment', he pointed out.

'Yes, but summoning demons is always kinda risky'.

'And the rest of this job isn't?' May had no reply, so he continued. 'Look, we'll call Brock or go back to his place and get him to help us. When has Brock ever messed anything up?'

'There's a first time for everything'. May said, still unconvinced.

'Come on May, what other choice do we have?'

'Okay, but I still don't like it'.

'Neither do I' he admitted.

'Hey Ash', May said, sitting down by the fire next to him. It was a couple of hours later and May and Dawn had gone to bed whilst Ash stayed up, staring into the flames of the fire.

'Hey', Ash replied, snapping out of his revorie.

'What are you doing up?'

'Could't sleep. You?'

'Same'.

'So, what's up with you and Dawn?'

'What? Nothing', Ash denied, glad that it was dark so that May couldn't see him blushing.

'Oh don't play dense with me Ash Ketchum, I saw you staring the other day. And any other time that you don't think that she's looking for that matter'.

'We're just friends'.

'But you both want to be friendlier, if you know what I mean', May said, wiggling her eyebrows.

'Quit making that face at me'.

'Then admit your feelings'.

'No'.

'Ah, so you admit that you are hiding feelings for Dawn'.

'I never said that', Ash was blushing for real now'.

'You didn't have to'. Ash remained silent and May sighed. 'Okay Ash, look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't have feelings for Dawn'.

'I don't have feelings for Dawn', Ash said a little too quickly and not quite meeting May's eyes.

'Why don't you just tell her how you feel?'

'No'.

'Are you scared that she'll reject you? Because I'm positive that she feels the same way about you'.

Ash didn't say anything, he just returned to staring into the flames, lost in his thoughts. May sighed again. 'Alright, good night Ash. Don't stay up too late okay'.

'Mmm hmm'.

'Why can't he just be honest about his feelings for once', May thought to herself as she curled back up in her sleeping bag and closed her eyes.

* * *

**Okay, just a quick note on how to pronounce Togoros' name. It is pronounced; Tuh-go-ross. Okay, hope that helps.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: So quick reply to a guest's question to which I couldn't reply personally because they have no account. The answer to your question is that Gary's story shall be revealed soon.**

**Okay, that's it. Enjoy the next chapter everyone.**

Chapter 5

'You want to summon a demon?' Brock said the next day.

'Yes, we think that it might be the only way to actually find something out anytime soon', Ash replied.

'Alright, I'm not happy about it, but I'll make all of the neccasary preparations. When do you think that you'll be back?'

'Hopefully tomorrow, definitely the day after that'.

'Well, let me know when you're on the boat back and I'll be there to meet you at the docks'.

'Got it. Thanks Brocko'.

'Don't mention it. See you soon'.

'See ya'.

Ash ended the call and poked his head into the tent. 'You girls ready yet?'

He was greeted with shrieks and an angry 'get out' from May. He flinched back, yanking the flap closed again.

'Pika chu pikapi', Pikachu looked up at his trainer with a slightly amused expression.

'Yeah I know that I should have known better', Ash acknowledged.

'Really Ash, anyone would think that you were getting as bad as Brock', May said, as she and Dawn emerged from the tent, ready for the day, five minutes later.

'Nobody is as bad as Brock', Ash replied.

'I don't know, Max is pretty bad these days'.

'Really?'

'Yeah. I was home for a week last month and I walked into the living room to see him making out with some girl'.

'Whoa. Do you know who she was?'

'A challenger at the gym apparently'.

'Huh. Who'd have thought Max would be like that'.

'I was rather shocked too'.

'What did you do?' Dawn wondered.

'I screamed at him, whacked him around the head, chucked the girl out and yelled at him some more. Creepy little mini Brock'.

'Hey', Brock's voice protested from Ash's back pocket.

'Huh?' Ash took his phone out and looked at the screen. 'Oh sorry Brock, I must have pocket dialed you', he said.

'Why does everyone insult me?'

'Because you're bordering on pervert', May called.

'Thanks May', Brock said dryly.

'Welcome', May replied cheerfully.

'We've gotta go. See you soon Brock', Ash said, once again ending the call and returning the phone to his pocket. 'Okay girls, let's go'.

* * *

They managed to find a boat back to Pummelo island that afternoon, but arrived a few minutes too late to catch the last boat of the day to Kanto. Not too disappointed, they checked into the Pokemon centre and Ash went out the back to train for a bit. He hadn't been out there long when a girl approached him.

'Hey, you look strong. Fancy a battle?' She smiled at him.

'Yeah okay', Ash replied enthusiastically, always up for a battle.

'Three on three okay?'

'That's fine with me'.

'Great. My name's Amy by the way'.

'I'm Ash'.

'You ready Ash?'

'Yup'.

'Then let's go Golem'.

'Pikachu, I choose you', Ash smiled. Pikachu bounded forward, the confidant smile on his face identical to his trainer's.

Dawn, who had come outside with May to watch Ash practice, was surprised by Ash's choice of Pokemon. Surely he knew that electric attacks would do nothing against a rock/ground type.

May however, was smiling. 'Same old Ash', she said fondly. 'He's always liked to go against type advantage'.

Out on the battle field, Amy was temporarily thrown by Ash's choice.

'Golem, use Rollout', she ordered, recovering quickly.

'Dodge, then use Quick Attack and Iron Tail', Ash responded.

Pikachu nimbly leapt out of the way of Golem's attack and waited until the other Pokemon had stopped moving before racing towards it, leaping into the air and slamming his glowing tail hard onto his opponent. Golem staggered under the strength of the attack and the mouse landed lightly a good distance away from it.

'Alright Pikachu, Volt Tackle', Ash called. Pikachu ran forward and was enveloped in a yellow light as he gathered speed.

'Rock Blast', Amy countered.

Pikachu was unable to avoid the boulders and the first one slammed into him hard, hurling him into the air and the next one knocking him back to the ground.

'Pikachu', Ash called in concern as his Pokemon struggled to stand.

'Stone Edge', Amy called.

'Send them back using Iron Tail'.

'Pika', Pikachu said in acknowledgment.

His tail glowed and he jumped into the air. Swinging his tail around, he hit the stones back into the surprised Golem.

'Golem are you okay?' Amy asked.

'Gol', her Pokemon confirmed.

'Good, now use Brick Break'.

Ash and Pikachu were unprepared for the speed of the attack and Golem landed a direct blow. Pikachu flew through the air, but managed to twist and land on his feet, although he was now beggining to show signs of tiredness.

'Let's finish up with another Rollout', Amy said.

Golem tried to obey but found itself unable to move. Electricity arched across it's body.

'Yes', Ash cheered, recognising the effects of Pikachu's static ability. 'Okay buddy, use back to back Iron Tails'.

Despite his fatigue, Pikachu eagerly obeyed. Unable to move and defend itself, Golem buckled under the multiple powerful attacks.

'Let's finish this with a Quick Attack', Ash decided.

Pikachu charged at the paralysed Golem and plowed into it. This was too much for the worn out rock and ground type and it sunk to the ground, knocked out.

'Great job Golem, return', Amy told her Pokemon fondly.

'Pikachu, return buddy, brilliant job', Ash said.

'Rapidash, let's go', Amy called out her next Pokemon.

'Rapidash huh', Ash mused. 'Alright, Staravia, I choose you. Use Wing Attack'.

Staravia chirped in response and flew towards Rapidash.

'Use Bounce', Amy said.

Rapidash leapt into the air and appeared above a surprised Staravia.

'Dodge it', Ash cried desperately.

Staravia did it's best to obey but couldn't react in time. Rapidash came down on top of the flying type, driving it into the ground in a cloud of dust.

'Staravia, are you alright?' Ash called worriedly. Staravia struggled to rise from the small crater it's body had created.

'Rapidash, use Jump Kick?' Rapidash spun around and kicked Staravia powerfully, sending it flying through the air. It was able to flap it's wings to regain it's balance however, and hovered unsteadily a few metres off the ground.

'Staravia, let's try a Quick Attack', Ash ordered. Staravia responded and was able to land the attack. 'Good, now use Ariel Ace'.

'Flame Wheel', Amy snapped.

Rapidash began to spin, becoming enveloped in fire and rolled forward, picking up speed as Staravia came in low for it's attack. The two attacks met and battled it out for a moment before exploding, knocking both Pokemon back a few feet.

Ash grit his teeth when he saw that his Pokemon couldn't last much longer.

'Staravia, use Brave Bird', he instructed, knowing that this last attack would be all or nothing.

'Fire Blast', Amy commanded.

Rapidash whinnied and released a star shaped blast of fire. The glowing Staravia expertly dodged it and plowed full on into the fire type. Both Pokemon were knocked out, Staravia being hit by the recoil of the attack. Both trainers praised and returned their Pokemon.

'Buizel, I choose you', Ash shouted, sending his Pokemon out first this time.

'Torterra, let's go', Amy said, throwing her starter's pokeball.

'Use Sonic Boom', Ash started off the last round.

'Counter with Frenzy Plant'.

Torterra roared its name, reared up and slammed it's feet onto the ground. Thick vines erupted from the battle field, reaching up and smacking into Buizel, who had jumped into the air to perform his attack. Torterra wasn't without damage though, as Buizel's Sonic Boom had made contact.

'You alright Buizel?' Ash asked.

'Bui bui', he replied, getting up and looking as determined as ever.

'Okay then, Aqua Jet into Ice Punch, go'. Buizel surrounded himself in water and shot towards Torterra.

'Leaf Storm', Amy replied.

Buizel was able to pass straight through the flurry of leaves and reach Torterra, where he then used Ice Punch.

'Quick, use Crunch Torterra', Amy shouted.

'Dodge it and keep using Ice Punch'.

Buizel leapt up onto Torterra's back, where he began to relentlessly pound away at the grass and ground type.

'Shake it off', Amy yelled, getting a little desperate now.

Torterra attempted to obey but the ice type attack was taking it's toll on it and Buizel had too good a grip to shake off. The huge Pokemon groaned and sank to the ground.

'Buizel that's enough, return', Ash called.

Buizel immediately stopped his attack and ran back over to Ash, who petted him and returned him. He then walked over to where Amy was kneeling next to Torterra.

'Is Torterra okay?' he asked.

'She will be after she's seen Nurse Joy', Amy replied, returning her Pokemon. She turned with her hand out. 'Good battle Ash'.

'You too', he replied warmly, shaking her hand.

'Great battle Ash', Dawn said as she and May walked over to him.

'Yeah, good job', May agreed. 'Keep that up and you may just win the Sinnoh leauge'.

'Thanks guys', Ash smiled. 'I'm gonna ask Nurse Joy to take care of these guys and then how about we grab some food?'

'Sounds good to me', May said.

'Okay', Dawn replied.

'Great. Give me two minutes', he said, hurrying into the centre.

'You like him don't you?' May asked Dawn out of the blue.

'What! No of course I don't', Dawn replied, flustered, certain that her face was red.

May smiled knowingly at her. 'Dawn, I'm going to give you some advice; if you like the boy, then tell him. Because believe me, Ash will never act on his feelings. And he does like you, you know. It would be a real shame if he got away, you would always regret it'.

'It sounds like this comes from experience'.

'It does', May replied wistfully. She didn't elaborate and Dawn didn't push her. But she couldn't help but wonder who May was talking about.

* * *

As promised, Brock was waiting to pick them up at the Viridian docks the next afternoon and drove them back to his house.

Now afternoon was turning into evening and the four of them were preparing to summon a demon.

'Hey Dawn', Brock got her attention. 'Could you take this can of spray paint and paint this on the floor of the garage please?' He asked, showing her a diagram of a pentagram with symbols inside it. 'Make it about half the size of the floor and make sure that all of the lines are joined up. Don't leave any gaps'.

'Sure', Dawn replied, taking the piece of paper and can of paint from him.

'Thanks'.

'Got the Holy water', Ash announced, entering through the front door with Pikachu at his heels.

'And I found some rock salt', May added, following him in.

'Put them in the garage', Brock told them, seemingly slightly stressed.

'Hey Dawn', Ash greeted as he and May entered the garage. He did a double take when he saw that she was on her hands and knees in front of him and he realised that he was able to see up her skirt.

'Hi', Dawn replied, turning around and smiling, not seeming to notice Ash's unease.

May fought back a laugh when she saw the look on Ash's face. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen a girl's body before; he had seen both her and Misty in a bikini plenty of times. And she couldn't speak for Misty but May had never seen him get this embarrased around her before. It was kind of amusing.

'Everything done in here?' Brock asked, coming in and breaking the rising awkwardness.

'Almost', Dawn replied, tearing her gaze away from Ash. Brock had also noticed Ash's expression and shared an amused look with May.

'Good', he said. 'Okay we're as ready as we're going to be. We might as well get on with this'.

'Who's going to do the spell?' Ash asked.

'Well not you', Brock snorted. 'You'd probably end up somehow ordering a pizza or something'.

'I'm offended, all I would have to do is read something from a piece of paper'.

'You'd probably still manage it'.

Ash pouted.

'Okay everyone, get ready'. Brock took a deep breath and began reciting the summoning spell in Latin.

A shiver ran down Dawn's spine at the sound of the ancient language.

As Brock ended the spell, a heavy silence fell upon the garage. Dawn looked into the circle and gasped. A woman in her early thirties with brown hair and green eyes stood in the center.

'It worked', Ash said in surprise.

'Of course it did, I was the one doing it', Brock answered.

'Well well well, and what exactly do you lot want with little old me?' The demon asked, her eyes changing to black.

'We need to know what you know about the plan to release Togoros', May replied, stepping forward.

'Why would you think that I know anything? I'm just a lowly, normal old demon'.

'Yes, but you must know something. It seems like a pretty big plan', May pressed.

'Maybe, maybe not', the demon replied cryptically.

'We're not going to get anywhere like this. We're going to have to try something else', Brock decided.

'Like what?' Dawn asked.

'Something more... extreme'.

'Like torture?'

Brock said nothing, which was a reply in itself.

'So who wants to do this?' Ash asked.

Nobody replied. Understandably, nobody was comfortable with the idea of torturing her. After all, that was a poor, innocent woman trapped inside that circle who just happened to have had her body taken over by a demon and used as a play thing.

'Luckily, I forsaw this and arranged something', Brock said.

'What did you do?', Ash asked.

'I called someone who would do this'.

'Who?'

'Someone who's not too pathetic to be able to do what needs to be done', a new voice said.

Ash growled. 'You called Paul?' he said to Brock.

'I didn't exactly have much of a choice', Brock pointed out.

'I'm about to get started, so if you can't stomach it, I suggest that you leave', Paul said coldly.

'I can't say that I'm surprised that you could do this Paul', Ash said to him and Dawn was surprised at the amount of venom in his voice. Whoever this Paul guy was, Ash clearly couldn't stand him.

'Funnily enough, I don't care what you think of me', Paul replied stonily. 'Now I really am going to start, so get out'.

May, Ash, Dawn and Brock moved out into the garden and stood in an unhappy group. There was silence for a few minutes and then the screaming started.

'Come on, let's go inside', Brock said.

Once inside, Brock made everyone a light snack and they sat in the living room, half watching a TV show and trying to pretend that Paul wasn't torturing someone out in the garage.

About an hour later, Paul walked into the living room, blood specks on his T-shirt and jeans, he carried his jacket over his shoulder. 'I've managed to get some information', he told them.

'What about the woman?' May asked.

'Didn't make it', he replied shortly.

Dawn saw anger flare in Ash's eyes and thought for a moment that he would actually hit Paul. 'And was that because of the demon or you?' He spat.

'What do you think?' He replied stonily.

'You know what I think'.

'If you don't like my methods, then don't ask for my help'.

'I didn't ask for your help. You're the last person that I would want help from'.

'What did you find out Paul?' Brock interrupted the arguement.

Paul switched his attention to Brock. 'The demon didn't know that much but it eventually told me that they have sacrifice seven people by the winter solstice to summon Togoros'.

'Winter solstice?' Dawn asked.

'The shortest day of the year', Brock explained.

'The demon said that there's more steps to summoning him than that but didn't know what they were', Paul finished.

'Do they have to perform the sacrifices in a paticular place?' Ash asked.

'The demon didn't know'.

'Did you find out anything else?' Brock asked.

'No'.

'Okay. Thanks Paul'.

Paul grunted in response, turned and left the room and house.

'I really hate that guy', Ash muttered.

'Is he always like that?' Dawn asked.

'No, he's usually worse', Ash said. May and Brock said nothing, obviously knowing better than to comment.

'I'd better get rid of the body', Brock said grimly after a minute. 'Ash, can you help me please?'

'Yeah, of course', Ash replied and the two of them left to perform the grisly task.

'Are you okay Dawn?' May asked.

'Mmm hmm', Dawn replied unconvincingly.

'I know that this job can be pretty tough. It took me a quite a while to get used to it too', May smiled sympathetically.

'How did you get into Hunting anyway. If you don't mind me asking. Or Ash for that matter?'

'Well it's up to Ash to tell you his story but I got into it through my brother. You see, about a year ago, Max and I travelled together for a bit, it made sense because we were going to the same town. One night, I met up with Drew for a few hours. I figured that Max would be alright; he usually is. But when I got back to the camp, something felt wrong. Everything looked alright, but something just felt... off. If you know what I mean'.

'I had a strong feeling that I needed to check on Max, so I poked my head into his tent. I almost had a heart attack when I saw a man crouched next to his head. I didn't think, I just yelled and tackled the guy; I think that he was more surprised than I was. Max woke up and I shouted at him to get out'.

'I thought that I was losing it when the guy bared his fangs at me. I mean, I always thought that vampires only exsisted in movies and TV shows and stuff. And then he dived on me and bit my neck. I would probably have been a goner if it hadn't been for Max, because I completely froze. It was the shock I assume'.

'He hit the vampire over the back of the head with a stick he found outside. Obviously it didn't hurt him, but it did get his attention off of me. Max sort of panicked a little when he had his attention. He tripped over when he tried to back away and dropped the stick, so I grabbed it and hit the vampire so hard with it that it broke in half and I moved in front of Max; I just kept thinking that no matter what, I couldn't let this guy hurt my little brother. When he went for us again, I jabbed forward with the stick, luckily for me, the broken end ended up piercing his heart. And that's basically how I got into Hunting, once I knew about vampires and things, I just couldn't go back to exactly the way things were before', May finished.

'So does that mean that Max is a Hunter too?' Dawn asked.

'Oh no. No, I would never let that happen. Brock found a good witch to wipe his memory of the whole incident. He doesn't need to know about these kinds of things'.

'That makes sense'.

'Yeah', there was a pause, then 'Dawn, are you sure that you want to get into this?'

Dawn barely had to think before replying. 'Yes'.

'Why? I mean me, Ash, Brock; we don't have a choice. We were allndragged into this monster crap one way or another and by now, we've all caused way too much trouble to get out of this life; we'll never be left alone. But you; you can still get out Dawn. So why would you ever choose this life?'

'I don't know', Dawn replied truthfully. 'Honestly, I wouldn't have thought any more about the whole Shifter thing if it hadn't been for...' she trailed off, not quite wanting to finish that sentence.

'If it wasn't for Ash?' May guessed. Dawn would normally have been too embarrassed to admit that, but for some reason, she found that she did want to admit it to May. She nodded.

'I thought so', May said. 'He has that effect on people. They meet him and they're, I don't know... drawn to him or something. They always seem to be willing to follow him anywhere. I think that maybe nobody who's travelled with him quite knows why they did. With him, you just feel... Safe'.

'Who are you talking about?' The boy that they were discussing asked, walking into the room with Brock.

'Oh no one important', May replied dismissively, sharing a knowing smile with Dawn.

'Huh', Ash grunted, flopping down onto the sofa. 'Brock, never ask me to do that again'.

'It wasn't that bad Ash', Brock said, sitting on the couch next to his friend much more gently than he had.

'Yeah, for you. You weren't the one digging the hole'.

'I already told you; I was holding the torch'.

'You could have given that to Pikachu'.

'There was no room in the hole'.

'I'm not that big, you could have fitted. You were just making excuses because you didn't want to dig'. Brock didn't deny it. 'See, I'm right', Ash said triumphantly.

'Fine, you can have this one', Brock conceded the fight with a smile.

'Yeah, I win!' Ash cheered.

'Alright, I'm going up to bed', May announced, rising and stretching.

'Me too', Brock said. 'Night guys'.

'Night', Ash and Dawn chorused.

'Pika'.

'Night Pikachu', Brock and May smiled.

An easy silence settled over the room. With Brock gone, Ash had taken over the couch, sprawled out lengthways on it. He absentmindedly petted Pikachu and looked as if he was on the verge if falling asleep.

After a while, Dawn spoke. 'Hey Ash'.

Ash, who had just drifted off, woke with a start.

'Oh, sorry', Dawn apologised.

'Don't worry about it', he said, sitting up. 'What's up?'

'I was just wondering how you got into Hunting. It's okay if you don't want to tell me', she added quickly.

Ash stroked Pikachu reflexively, looking thoughtful.

'It's kind of a long story', he began. 'I guess it happened one summer when I was back in Pallet Town for a visit, after I beat the Kanto Battle Frontier. Gary was back home too and we were hanging out one evening. We were coming back from Viridian City actually, we'd been meeting up with some old friends. It was kind of late, so nobody was around and we were almost back when we saw somebody standing in the middle of the road'.

'Of course, Gary slammed on the brakes but we still hit whoever it was anyway. We got out to try and help. I started phoning for an ambulance whilst Gary went over to the guy'.

'It happened so fast that I wasn't able to stop it. The guy jumped up and the next thing I knew, he was on top of Gary. I tried to help get him off but it was too dark to see clearly and the guy was really strong. I felt something warm spraying me but I didn't really think much of it at the time. I chucked a rock at him and that got his attention. He had sharp, pointed teeth and I realised that they had blood on them. Gary's blood', Ash shivered at the memory. 'I probably would have been done for too if Sceptile hadn't gotten out of his ball and Leaf Bladed him. The Werewolf did seem to consider fighting him, but he must have thought that Sceptile was too strong or something after he used Bullet Seed on him, because he ran off'.

'As soon as the Werewolf had left, I ran over to Gary, there was blood everywhere and his chest was ripped open. The thing had torn his heart out and eaten it. So after the funeral, I felt the need to get into Hunting. I figured that even if I couldn't protect my friend, I could protect other people from the things that lurk in the dark out there. I talked to Sabrina at the Saffron city gym and she turned me onto somebody who could teach me how to hunt and here I am', he said, ending his story.

'That's terrible, I'm sorry', Dawn said. 'Wait, so how is Gary a ghost now?'

Ash shrugged. 'Honestly I'm not sure, neither is he. Most we can guess is that he has unfinished business of some kind that's keeping him from moving on. Or he could be hanging around just to annoy me. Personally I'm more inclined to believe the latter'.

'That sounds about right from what I've seen', Dawn chuckled.

'I am insulted', Gary sniffed, popping up. 'And after I went to all of the trouble of finding out where the sacrifice is going to be held'.

Ash perked up. 'You did? Where?'

'What will you give me if I tell you?'

'I won't take a trip to Pallet Town to salt and burn your bones'.

'Good deal. Okay they need to do the sacrifice on top of Celestial Tower'.

'Celestial Tower? Never heard of it. Where is it?'

The Celestial Tower my dear Ash is located on route 7 in Unova'.

'Great. Do you know when they're going to do it?'

'Yes. The sacrifice has to be complete by 11:58 on the winter solstice'.

'That's a weirdly specific time', Dawn commented.

'It is a bit, isn't it', Gary agreed.

'Good job Gary, who needs Paul', Ash praised.

'Thank you. You know, I don't know why you didn't just ask me to find out in the first place'.

'Guess we didn't think of it'.

'Forgotten about again', Gary fake pouted.

'You'll get over it', Ash said.

'Oh yeah and we need to find Togoros' true vessel', Gary added.

'Why?' Dawn asked.

'Because whoever he or she is, the demons are going to try and get them. So if we can get to them first, then we can keep the demons from using said person and stop them raising Togoros', Gary explained patiently.

'How come you explain to Dawn nicely but if I had asked that question you would have treated me like I'm an idiot?' Ash wanted to know.

'Because you are an idiot'.

'Why don't you stop haunting me then?'

'Because it's way too fun annoying you'.

'I knew that that was the reason!'

'Well I always did it so well in life, why should I let death stop me?' Gary smirked.

'How are we going to find this vessel?' Dawn asked, cutting the boys' arguement short.

'With Ashy-boy's favourite thing', Gary replied. 'Lots and lots of research'.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long wait but I finally got this chapter done and I hope that you enjoy it. Just want to say thanks to everyone who is sticking with this story and reviewing, favouriting and following. You guys are all awesome.**

'I hate research', Ash groaned for what seemed like the hundreth time that hour.

'Ash', May began through gritted teeth. 'If you moan one more time I am going to strangle you'.

'I wasn't moaning'.

'Oh yes you were'.

'Come on now, stop fighting', Brock said absentmindedly without looking away from the screen of his laptop.

The four of them had been looking into records, trying to trace Togoros' bloodline for most of the day but so far, had turned up nothing. Ash was bored; he had never been one for just sitting around and having to go through records dating back to more than a hundred years ago bored him to tears.

'Do you really need my help?' He asked yet again, ignoring May's growl of irritation.

'Yes', Brock replied, beginning to lose patience himself. 'I already told you, the more people looking, the faster we'll find something'.

'Fine', Ash grumbled, going back to the computer in front of him that Pikachu was sleeping on top of.

Soon, Dawn found herself drifting off as she stared at the screen.

'Okay, I give up', Brock announced, getting up and disappearing upstairs.

He came back down ten minutes later dressed smartly in a black suit and tie.

'Uh, what's with the suit?' Dawn asked.

'I'm going to try and get into the records department at Fuschia City', Brock explained. 'So I have to pretend that I'm a CIA agent?'

'But don't you need an I.D. badge or something?'

'Oh Brock has that covered', Ash said, smiling.

'Yeah, see we have this friend who can produce realistic fake . They've never failed us so far', May explained. 'Actually, if you're serious about this job, then we should probably take you to meet her soon'.

'Oh, okay', Dawn said, not quite sure what to think about getting a fake I.D. Especially one that claimed that she was a government official or something.

'Good luck Brocko', Ash said.

'Thanks', Brock called, halfway out of the door.

It wasn't until early evening that Brock came back looking totally fed up but triumphant none the less.

'I've got something', he told Ash, Dawn and May.

'You have?' May said excitedly.

'Well I haven't found the youngest descendant quite yet but I'm definitely on the right track'.

'That's great, so how long until you find him or her?'

'With a bit of luck, by the end of tomorrow'.

'That means that we don't have to keep doing this stupid research', Ash said happily.

'Ash, you fell asleep about five minutes after Brock left' Dawn pointed out.

'That's my point, I was almost bored to death'.

'Always so dramatic', May teased, rolling her eyes.

'Hey you're the coodinator'.

'And what exactly is that supposed to mean?'

'It means that you lot are dramatic for a living'.

'You know, I can't actually argue with that one'.

'So I'm going to end this arguement there and go to bed. You two, get out of mine and Pikachu's bedroom'.

'You can't kick us out, it's Brock's living room'.

'Pikaaa'.

Pikachu stood up and sparked playfully, a mischivious look in his eyes.

'Ok, we're going', Dawn yelped, dragging May with her. 'Night Ash. Pikachu'.

'Night girls', Ash replied. He turned to find Pikachu nestled on the couch. 'Pikachu, get out of the way'.

'Chu', Pikachu said, lazily opening one eye.

'What do you mean no? Come on Pikachu, I want to go to bed'.

'Chu'.

'Fine, I'll just move you myself', Ash said, moving to pick Pikachu up. Pikachu sparked at him but Ash ignored him picked the Pokemon up anyway. Pikachu released a weak Thunderbolt that Ash merely shook off and put the mouse down on the coffee table whilst he made up the bed. That done, he lay down and patted the space next to him. Pikachu curled up next to him and the two settled down for the night.

* * *

The following day, Ash went to Brock's old gym to see if the battlefield was free for him to train on. It was and Ash ended up spending most of the day there until a challenger turned up and he decided that it was time to head back to the practice.

Brock turned up just after Ash did.

'Did you find the person?' Dawn asked as soon as he walked through the door.

'I did', he turned to May and Ash. 'And you two will never guess who it is'.

'Then tell us', Ash said.

'Togoros' current true vessel is Misty'.

Ash and May were knocked sideways at that.

'Misty? As in the Misty who travelled with us for years?' Ash had to ask.

'Yup'.

'Huh, small world. Alright let's go and get her. I'm assuming that she's still in Cerulean?'

'Give her a call to check'.

'Can I use your phone?'

'Sure'.

'Who's Misty?' Dawn asked once Ash had left.

'Oh she used to travel with Ash and I way back when Ash first became a trainer. They both had feelings for each other, though neither ever admitted it', he added, completly oblivious to the fact that Dawn liked Ash that way too.

'Yes but they may not feel the same way now', May said quickly, trying to make Dawn feel better.

'I don't know; they did care a lot about each other', Brock pressed on, unaware of Dawn's inner turmoil. May wanted to slap him, why did he have to pick now to be as dense as Ash?

'She is still at the gym', Ash informed them, coming back in. Dawn's heart sank slightly when she saw the incredibly happy look he had after speaking to this Misty girl again. 'I told her that we would be there tomorrow morning'.

'You really have no sense of time do you Ash?' Brock said. 'Try we'll get there by noon at the earliest'.

'Oh', Ash said, looking disappointed. 'But if we went early...'.

'I am not getting up at a stupid time to drive to Cerulean when it won't hurt to turn up later in the day.

'Besides, you usually hate getting up early', May pointed out.

'Yeah yeah', Ash replied, brushing off her comment.

'It'll be fine Ash, don't worry', Brock said kindly.

'Yeah, I know', Ash replied. But he couldn't shake off a bad feeling.

* * *

'I call shot gun', Ash shouted, running into the garage.

'I don't think so', May said, cutting in front of him and diving into the truck's passenger seat.

'Aw come on', Ash protested.

'Get in the back Ash', May said triumphantly.

'But...'.

'Ash, just get in the back', Brock said.

'Aw man', Ash grumbled as he took a seat next to Dawn. Dawn herself was rather happy to be sitting next to Ash, it seemed that she hadn't been able to spend as much time alone with him as she'd like lately, despite living in the same house as him for the past few days. Plus, she was slightly insecure about this Misty person, Ash did seem really excited at the prospect of seeing her. What if Brock was right and he did have romantic feelings for her? What would she do then?

As much as she tried to ignore these feelings, the thoughts stayed stubbornly at the back of her mind, nagging away at her until by the time they got to Cerulean, Dawn had managed to convince herself that Misty would steal Ash away from her the second that he stepped out of the car.

The boy himself did nothing to alleviate her fears. He hardly waited for the car to stop outside the gym before leaping out and racing into the gym with Pikachu at his side. The others followed at a more sedate pace.

'Hey Mist, we're here', he called.

A girl came through the doors that led to the pool area of the gym but it wasn't the one that Ash wanted to see.

'Like, who are you and like why are you being so like, loud?' Violet asked haughtily.

'Uh, we were looking for Misty', Ash replied.

'Like, clearly. I think that you like, told the whole town who were like, looking for', she said with an eye roll.

'Leave him alone Violet', a new voice demanded. Ash's heart leapt a little when he saw the voice's owner.

'Misty!' He exclaimed, hurrying over to her.

'Pikachupi', Pikachu squeaked happily, leaping into her arms.

'Hey guys, it's great to see you too', Misty smiled, hugging first Pikachu and then Ash. Dawn felt a pang of jealousy at their obvious closeness. She cleared her throat pointedly.

'Oh, sorry', Ash said, pulling away from Misty's embrace. 'Misty this is Dawn, Dawn this is Misty. Brock and May are around here somewhere too'.

'Here we are', the excitable brunette announced, hurrying in and hugging Misty tightly.

'Hey Mist', Brock said fondly, also hugging the gym leader.

'Hey guys, it's great seeing you and it's a pleasure to meet you Dawn', Misty smiled warmly at Dawn, instantly erasing any resentment that Dawn had been feeling towards her.

'It's nice to meet you too', Dawn replied genuinely, smiling back.

'So, I'm supposed to be the vessel for some ancient evil witch', Misty remarked.

'Apparently', Ash replied.

'And of course you're mixed up in a potential doomsday again. Can't you keep out of trouble when I'm not around Ketchum?' She playfully slapped the peak of his cap, knocking it down over his eyes.

'I got in enough trouble with you around', Ash laughed, readjusting his cap. 'So are you ready to come with us?'

'Yeah. Just let me grab my stuff'.

'Ok'.

'But like Misty, how will we like, manage the gym by ourselves?' They heard one of Misty's sisters whine from upstairs. Ash rolled his eyes and exchanged looks with Brock and May.

'I keep telling you actually battle any challengers that come and DON'T just give away badges. I've given you plenty of training and you're pretty decent battlers now, so you should be able to handle a few of the newer trainers', Misty replied, sounding exasperated.

'But...'.

'Stop whining Lily', Misty snapped at her sister. She huffed in irritation when she came back down the stairs. 'Right, let's go before I strangle all three of them', she sighed and everyone laughed at the look on her face; a cross between exasperation and anger.

'You can all laugh, but you don't have to live with them', Misty scowled.

'You know Mist, seeing you with your sisters kinda makes me glad that I'm an only child', Ash chuckled.

'Sometimes I wish that I was'.

'Come on, you care about them really', Brock said.

'Don't let them hear that, they take advantage enough as it is'.

'So are we going or not?' May asked, getting bored of just standing around.

'Yes we're going, come on', Brock replied. They filed out the door to the sounds Misty's sisters complaining about how they would cope with the gym by themselves.

Dawn was fervently grateful that they weren't her sisters.

* * *

Dawn stepped out of the room that she was sharing with May and Misty and headed for the staircase when the door to the bathroom opened and Ash stepped out wearing nothing but a towel.

Dawn's gaze was immediately drawn to his muscular chest, the occassional drop of water that dripped from his hair rolling down it and his washboard abs.

A fierce blush rose to her face and she couldn't be sure that her mouth wasn't hanging open like a Magikarp.

'Oh hey Dawn', he said, noticing her standing there.

'Uhh...' Her brain seemed to have stopped functioning and she couldn't think of the proper response. It certainly wasn't helping that he was now giving her a questioning look.

'Are you okay Dawn? You look kinda flushed', he asked, concern evident in his voice.

'_Speak you idiot'_, Dawn thought to herself. 'Huh? Oh no, I'm fine', she said a little too quickly.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes, absolutely', Dawn replied with a nervous laugh, wanting to slap herself for acting like a stupid airhead just because she'd seen Ash's chest.

'Well, if you're positive', he said, looking unconvinced.

'I'm sure'.

'Ok then, see you in the morning'.

'Yeah, night'.

Ash reached the stairs but stopped to let someone come up.

Dawn felt a hot surge of jealousy as she caught Misty staring at Ash with what Dawn assumed was an almost identical expression to the one that she had worn only minutes before. Ash blushed, matching the colour on her cheeks when he realised what Misty was staring at, avoiding her gaze. After a moment, Misty did the same and an uncomfortable silence hung over them. Dawn got the impression that Ash had forgotten that she was there and Misty hadn't noticed her at all. She had an urge to make presence known but didn't want to further embarrass Ash.

A couple of minutes passed before Ash awkwardly cleared his throat.

'Uhh... So uh, night Mist. Dawn', he added hurriedly, seemingly as an after thought.

'Y-yes, night Ash', Misty stammered, quickly moving aside to let him past.

'Goodnight', Dawn muttered as Ash disappeared down the stairs.

There was an awkward silence between the two girls when Ash had left. Dawn had hoped that Misty hadn't noticed her obvious jealousy but clearly she was wrong. She tried to think of something to say, something that would relieve the tension between them. But she came up short.

'Well ah... Goodnight Misty', she finally murmured, keeping her head down and turning away from the older girl.

'So you like him too huh?' Misty's voice halted Dawn in her tracks.

Reluctantly, she turned to face the gym leader. 'N-no', she tried.

Misty smiled, although it didn't quite reach her eyes, which had a sad, almost longing look. 'It's alright', she said. 'I know that he and I will never happen but it could be different for you. I've seen the way that he looks at you, May has noticed too. Just do me a favour; when you do get together, look after him?'

It was Dawn's turn to smile. 'Of course I will'.

'Thanks Dawn. Now, let's go and see what May is up to shall we?'

'Okay', Dawn replied, relieved and grateful that Misty understood and was okay with Dawn's feelings. The girls went into their room whilst downstairs Ash prepared for bed, completely oblivious to the conversation that had just gone on above his head.

* * *

'Umm... So do we have an actual plan to stop Togoros rising or not?' Misty asked from where she sat in an armchair in Brock's living room. They had been back in Pewter City for almost a week and she was beginning to get bored.

'Not exactly', Ash admitted, disinterestedly flicking through TV channels.

'Of course, why was I expecting anything else from you? You never have a plan'.

'And yet things always seem to work out alright anyway'.

She couldn't argue with that. Ash had always had a habit of making whatever situation he found himself in turn out fine, even without a plan.

'Well we would do something', Brock spoke up. 'Except that we don't know if the demons have to sacrifice specific people or if anyone will do, where these sacrifices take place, what the other steps in the preparation are or when and where they are going to strike next. We're doing our best to find answers but seem to be getting nowhere and we can't act until we do get them'.

'That is a problem', Misty admitted.

'Have you considered maybe communicating with some spirits to see if they know anything?' Dawn asked tentatively.

Brock stared hard at her, making Dawn think that she might have said something stupid.

'Like with a Ouija board?' he asked.

'Yes', Dawn nodded.

'No I haven't. But it is as good an idea as any I've had so far. Good thinking Dawn'.

'Thanks'.

'Do those things actually work?' Ash asked scepticaly. 'I thought that they were pieces of mass produced junk that people used to freak themselves out at halloween parties'.

'Usually yes, but they can work if you use them properly', Brock told him.

'Okay. Where do we get one? I'm assuming that you don't have one Brock?'

'No I don't'.

'Ooh I know where', Misty said. 'There's this little shop just outside Cerulean that sells weird stuff like that'.

'Then I guess that I should go and get one', Ash said. 'Can I borrow your car please Brock?'

'Don't crash it', Brock replied, tossing him the keys.

'Please, I'm an awesome driver'.

'Says the guy who reversed into a wall on his first ever driving lesson', Brock snorted.

'Don't forget about that old woman crossing the road that he almost mowed down', Gary added, appearing standing half in the coffee table.

'She jumped out in front of me', Ash defended himself.

'An old woman jumped?' Gary asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Yes'.

'Riiight'.

'I saw him run a stop sign once', May piped up.

'And I remember Brock telling me how one time when he was giving you a lesson, you hit a tree', Misty grinned.

'It moved', Ash said flatly.

'Ash, we were on the freeway, I don't even know how you managed to find a tree to hit', Brock said.

'Pika pikapi chu pi pik cha'.

'He plowed across Delia's garden and hit the house?' Misty translated.

'Pi'.

'Pikachu!' Ash cried as everybody else burst into the laughter. 'You swore that you wouldn't tell anybody that'.

Oh yeah I remember that now', Gary chuckled. 'Delia was furious, I thought that she was going to strangle you'.

'How the hell did you manage that?' Dawn giggled.

'I hit the wrong peddle', Ash mumbled, causing everybody to break into a new fit of laughter. 'Look everybody makes mistakes okay?' He snapped, getting irritated by the continued laughter. 'You guys are all jerks, I'm leaving. Want to come Dawn?'

'Okay', Dawn replied, trying not to look too eager.

'Let's go'.

* * *

'Is this the place?' Dawn asked apprehensively, staring at the forboding shop before them.

The shop wasn't that big. To be accurate, it was barely more than a shed. The dark brown paint was flaking off and there was a bare patch of wood where a sign had been hanging above the door. The small display window displayed a collection of dried, shrivelled herbs, weird, new-agey type books and dusty jars that had been sitting there for so long that the writing on their labels had long since faded to become illegible.

'Must be, it's the only place like this around here', Ash said in answer to Dawn's question, moving inside.

Ash had been expecting the interior to look like these kinds of shops did in horror movies; dark and creepy, maybe with a weird smell and a creepy old shop keeper to go with it. So he was surprised to find that the inside was actually light and smelled like incense. The small space was crammed full of racks and shelves selling things like crystals and items to be used in "spells".

Dawn relaxed and waundered off to check out a display rack over by the window and Ash, with Pikachu perched on his shoulder, went over to the empty cash register at the back of the shop and peered into the dark room behind it.

'Hello?' he called. He got no response.

'Pika?' Pikachu tried.

'Is anyone here? We're looking for something', Ash shouted louder. 'Huh, no one's answering', he said, turning around to face Dawn.

'Can I help you with anything?' A female voice right behind Ash asked, almost making him jump. Turning back around, he came face to face with a brunette in her twenties.

'Um, yes', he replied, collecting himself whilst his heart rate returned to normal. He felt Dawn come to stand next to him. 'We're looking for a Ouija board'.

'A Ouija board?' The woman repeated, never taking her eyes from his.

'Yeah. Do you have one?'

The woman was silent for so long that Ash began to think that he wouldn't get an answer. Then, 'yes, I think that I might do', she replied. Drifting past Dawn and Ash, she went to the shelves on the left side of the shop, moved a few books around and carried a box back to them.

'Great, thanks. How much?' Ash asked.

'£14.95'.

Ash payed and was handed the box with the board inside. He started to leave and Dawn turned to go with him when she felt a grip on her arm. She turned back to the woman, puzzled.

The woman stared straight into Dawn's eyes. 'You have great sorrow ahead of you', she said solemnly.

'W-what?' Dawn stuttered, pulling out of the woman's grasp and stumbling back a step. Ash came back and put a protective arm around her.

'It centers around him', the woman continued, shifting her gaze to Ash.

Dawn shivered.

'Alright that's it, let's go Dawn', Ash said angrily, glaring daggers at the woman. 'Come on, don't listen to her, she's just trying to scare you'.

Dawn allowed Ash to lead her out of the shop, but stopped once they were outside and looked back over her shoulder, a pit in her stomach. Ash caught her anxious expression and fresh anger bubbled up in him. Who was that woman to scare Dawn like that? He had half a mind to go back and give her a taste of one of Pikachu's Thunderbolts.

'Dawn forget about it', he said gently. 'I don't know what her game was but it certainly wasn't funny or realfor that matter. I'll bet that she's a "fortune teller" or something like that. There's a million of those types of people around, trying to con people. And every single one of them spews nothing but enormous piles of Tauros crap. So don't let it bother you okay?'

'Okay', Dawn agreed.

'Good. Now let's get back to Brock's'.

* * *

The Ouija board had been set up on the kitchen table and everybody was standing around the room.

'Do all of us have to play?' Ash wondered, leaning against the worktop next to the fridge with his arms crossed.

'No, just a few of us will do I think', Brock replied.

'I'll do it', Dawn volunteered. She wanted to be as helpful as possible, even though she had a bad feeling about this.

'Me too', May decided, taking a seat at the table.

'Alright let's do this', Brock also sat down.

'Wait', Misty suddenly said. 'If we need to get information from a ghost, then why don't we just ask Gary?'

'Because nobody will tell Gary what we need to know', Gary answered, materialising between her and Ash.

'Why is Gary referring to himself in the third person?' Ash asked.

'Because he wants to', Gary replied. 'Anyway, to find out what we need we need to talk to somebody... darker than me'.

'You mean eviler?'' Misty checked.

'You really don't believe in sugar coating things do you Red? Yes, someone eviler if you want'.

A chill ran down Dawn's spine and May put a comforting hand on her leg. Dawn managed a weak smile in thanks and May nodded and smiled back in acknowledgment.

'Let's just get this over with', Brock said, placing two fingertips on the planchette. May and Dawn followed suit and, taking a deep breath, Brock began. 'We're calling on any spirits that have knowledge of the plan to raise Togoros. We need your help. Is anyone there?'

'Yeah, me', Gary muttered quietly. Ash and Misty hurriedly stifled their laughter when Brock shot the three of them a nasty look.

'Anyone besides Gary?' Brock tried again. 'Please? We really need your help'.

Nothing happened for a couple of minutes and then the temperature of the room suddenly dropped. The living people's breath appeared as white puffs of mist in front of them.

Gary's eyes widened when he saw the ghost standing between May and Dawn. His skin was red and raw and some of it was flaking off. Patches of muscle and bone showed through where his flesh had burned off and only one of his eyes remained. Part of his lips had burned off, exposing his teeth and the flames that had killed him had made short work of his hair. There was barely enough of his old fashioned clothes to still be modest. Through the holes in the fabric, Gary could see that the burns covered his entire body.

The burn victim made eye contact with Gary and he resisted the urge to disappear. There was so much fury and malevolence radiating from the other spirit that alarm bells were going off in Gary's head. He really didn't like that he was standing next to his friends. Burn victim reached out and moved the planchette.

YES

Brock took another deep breath. 'Do you know anything about the ritual to raise Togoros?'

MAYBE

'Would you tell us what you know?'

MAYBE

'Please?' There was no response. 'Are you still there?' Brock asked.

In answer, Dawn felt a cold breath on the back of her neck. She squealed and whipped around but, of course, couldn't see anything. Gary watched warily as Burn victim moved behind May. Bending down, he moved her hair, brought his face to her neck and slowly licked it. Poor May looked justifiably grossed out and ready to bolt from the room.

'Hey, cut that out you pervert', Gary yelled angrily.

'Huh?' Ash asked, not being able to see the ghost himself.

'The bastard just licked May', Gary snarled.

'He did what?' Misty asked, disgusted.

'Leave them alone and just answer our questions', Gary told Burn victim coldly.

The other ghost looked at him for a moment, before disappearing and reappearing right in front of Gary.

'Are you threatening me boy?' He had a low, gravelly voice.

'Maybe I am', Gary replied evenly, refusing to be intimidated.

'I don't like to be threatened by newbies'.

'And I don't like my friends being harassed by dirty old men. Back off'.

'And how are you going to make me?' Burn victim smirked.

Gary remained silent. In all honesty, he had no idea how he would stop Burn victim hurting his friends if it came down to it. After all, he was still only a young ghost and he hadn't worked out most of the tricks that older spirits knew that would be useful in this sort of situation.

Burn victim took a step back, still smirking.'That's what I thought. Fine, I'll talk. But I _will_ have my fun after'. He went back to the table.

'He said that he will answer your questions Brock. Be careful', Gary said, glaring at Burn victim.

'Great', Brock said. He put his fingers back on the planchette, May and Dawn reluctantly doing the same.

'Now, can anybody be sacrificed or does it have to be specific people?'

ANYBODY.

'Where does the final part of the ritual take place?'

DON'T KNOW.

'Don't know, or won't tell us?'

I DON'T KNOW.

'Really?' Brock was sceptical.

REALLY.

'Are there other steps to raising Togoros?'

YES.

'What are they?'

NOT TELLING.

'Why not?'

DON'T WANT TO.

Brock gritted his teeth; this ghost was really beginning to get on his nerves. 'Fine. Where are the demons going to pop up next?'

CIANWOOD CITY.

'When?'

NEXT WEEK.

'Can you be more specific?'

The planchette circled the board lazily but didn't actually spell out anything. Gary saw Burn victim smirk and resisted the urge to throw something at his head. Man this guy was infuriating.

'When next week?' Brock asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

OCTOBER 18TH. Was the answer that finally came.

'Thank you'.

Burn victim's smirk suddenly widened and a feeling of dread washed over Gary. Before he could shout a warning, Burn victim set the table on fire. Brock and Dawn were able to scramble away but before May could move far, Burn victim grabbed her by the throat and, smiling cruelly, began slowly lowering her towards the flames. May clawed desperately at the invisible hands around her throat. It did no good as her nails just passed harmlesly through them. A revolting smell filled the air as the tips of her hair burnt and curled from the heat of the flames.

'May!' Ash shouted. Springing forward, he attempted to push May up and away from the flames, ignoring the searing heat on his own bare arms. Misty and Dawn each grabbed one of May's arms and began pulling whilst Gary tried frantically to think of something that he could do to help.

'Oh God!' Dawn yelped when May's hair began to catch fire. She beat out the flames out with her hands.

Burn victim continued to smile sadistically and simply increased the downward pressure as May's friends tried to help her. He was old, very old and his strength and power far surpassed that of three teenagers. He would burn this little brunette for no other reason than his own amusement. After all, he loved nothing better these days than the smell of burning flesh and the agonised screams of his chosen victim. It seemed to relieve the anger over his own, similar death

May's clothes were catching fire now and Burn victim couldn't surpress a grin at her first scream.

'Look out'. The warning came only a split second before the shot rang out, startlingly loud in the small kitchen.

The high powered spray of rock salt hit its intended dead on and vaporised him instantly. Misty flinched slightly as some of it struck her cheek. Ash quickly caught May to save her from falling backwards.

The four of them looked up at Brock who was holding the shotgun, looking grim.

It was Ash who finally broke the stunned silence. ' Well', he said. 'That was intense'.

* * *

'**So hopefully you all found this chapter was okay and didn't feel too rushed. Feel free to tell me what you think if you like and hopefully I can get the next chapter up sooner than this one.**


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